Gulf oil spill: President Obama names panel to lead federal investigation

[jpak]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/05/gulf-oil-spill-president-obama-names-panel-to-head-national-investigation-.html

With frustration growing over the unplugged oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama on Friday appointed a bipartisan panel to figure out the root causes of the disaster and recommend ways to prevent something like it in the future.

A former Florida governor and senator, Bob Graham, will join former Environmental Protection Agency director William K. Reilly as co-chairman of the commission, charged with studying how better regulation could stop accidents like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Obama is asking the seven-member commission to study the causes of the spill and issue a report within six months suggesting improvements. The president is expected to officially announce the creation of the commission as early as Saturday, an administration official confirmed late Friday.

The move comes a month after BP's drilling rig off the coast of Louisiana exploded, killing eleven people and bursting an underwater pipe. Since then, thousands of barrels of oil have spewed into the gulf daily in an environmental disaster of untold proportions. The company and outside experts are working frantically to try to plug the leak, as government officials grow increasingly agitated about the lack of success and its impact on small businesses and communities in the region.

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[KeepItReal]

1. Does this commission mean that there is no Dept. of Justice investigation?

What gives?

[LakeSamish706]

2. Oh, a commission to review this.... Thats good indeed. Woops, that damn

barn door was left open again and the pony got out. Well, no mater we will shut it now so no more will escape. Crap, there are thousands of ponies in the barn that might get out if that damned door is left open again. Oh well, let someone else worry about that, cause it won't be my problem at that time.

[jpak]

3. you said pony

IBTL

[AdHocSolver]

4. Six months to figure out what happened and issue a report?

An awful lot of oil is going to spill out into the gulf by then.

Meanwhile, all of the guilty parties can come up with their excuses, and the public will get fully numb to the entire disaster.

Another whitewash.

Just watch the media, and browse the internet. It is pretty obvious what happened, and why. However, it won't be official until a "bipartisan" commission spends six months with their heads "where the sun don't shine" to find BP, Halliburton, and the oil rig company totally innocent of any misfeasance or malfeasance, and decides that the taxpayers should pay for the damage.

There is no sarcasm here. That is going to be the result of this "commission".

[gateley]

5. "...recommend ways to prevent something like it in the future."

How about no more drilling?

[amborin]

6. With Former EPA guy Reilly at helm....Exxon Valdez report redux?