Back in May, Obama called for an investigation into how the government responded to the BP oil spill. Well, the preliminary results are now in
and they’re not pretty. The presidential commission found that Obama’s administration “failed to act upon or fully inform the public of its own worst-case estimates” concerning the quantity of oil leaking from the well. Additionally, the report says the government continually underestimated the amount of oil flowing into the Gulf of Mexico, ignoring contradictory information from scientists who had “better methodologies.”
“By initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the gulf,” one of the reports stated, “the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem.”
Government officials responded Wednesday that the response was “in full force and immediate,” claiming that they sufficiently and repeatedly warned the public about worst-case scenarios. The report shared Wednesday is considered a “working paper,” as the final, formal report is due January 12, 2011. One gets the feeling a whole bunch of White House officials will be calling in sick that day.
Report Slams Administration for Underestimating Gulf Spill [NYT]
Administration criticized over oil spill estimates [CNN]
