National Oil Spill Commission release report

A report by the National Oil Spill Commission in the US has criticised the White House and coastguard officials regarding their response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

The report suggests that the US coastguard was “overly optimistic” that BP would be able to handle the incident quickly and the response from the government in the US “seemed to lag”.

It is also claimed in the draft report that President Obama’s administration stopped government scientists’ attempts to warn the general public of the worst case scenario regarding the amount of oil that could be spilled.

The National Oil Spill Commission was appointed by President Obama, so their findings will undoubtedly cause problems for the US president.

It seems that scientists from the US government actually overestimated the amount of crude oil that had evaporated or had been removed from the sea and had underestimated the amount of oil seeping into the Gulf from the Macondo well.

The report also pointed out that Carol Browner, the advisor on energy policy, had stated on national television that three quarters of the oil had gone, which at the time was wholly incorrect.

It seems the fall-out from the disaster will rumble on for some time yet.