http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/11/gulf_of_mexico_oil_spill_commi_2.html
Times-Picayune
Published: Wednesday, November 10, 2010, 7:00 AM
Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune Bruce Alpert, Times-Picayune
Some early critics of President Barack Obama’s national oil spill commission are now praising the panel for conducting a thorough investigation of the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, although they say a final assessment awaits completion of the commission’s report in January.
“I’ve been happy with their interest in addressing the (drilling) moratorium because they indicated they weren’t responsible for that issue,” Rep. Steve Scalise, R-Jefferson, said Tuesday. He alluded to the advocacy by commission co-chairs Bob Graham and William Reilly for an early end to the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, which was eventually lifted Oct. 12.
“Of course, we need to see what the final report says, but I think they’ve conducted a fairly thorough investigation,” Scalise said.
After Obama appointed the seven-member commission in July there was criticism that it lacked representation from the oil and gas industry and included members who have been industry critics.
“They’ve done a good job of discovery so let’s give credit where credit is due,” Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, said.
But Cassidy said his initial complaint that the panel lacked deepwater drilling expertise was borne out at Monday’s session when representatives of BP and Halliburton disagreed on responsibility for failing to detect a possible cementing failure the commission staff believes may have contributed to the disaster.
“If the commission had a petroleum engineer on its panel, it would have had an easier time dealing with the issue,” Cassidy said.
oil_spill_commission_bartlit.jpgView full sizeJ. Scott Applewhite, The Associated PressFred Bartlit Jr., chief investigator of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, said he agreed with 90 percent of BP’s report on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. He was photographed giving a detailed presentation of the operation of an offshore oil rig Monday for panel members, from left, Cherry A. Murray, William Reilly, Bob Graham, Christopher Smith, Frances Ulmer and Donald Boesch.
The commission won over some of its critics by spreading blame around, including some for the administration that appointed its members.
The commission last month criticized the Obama administration for not more quickly revealing that initial spill estimates from BP were substantially low and for not conducting more analysis on the environmental consequences of the massive use of chemical dispersants to dilute the spilled oil. Administration officials dispute those critiques.
The commission received some of its toughest public criticism after its chief counsel, Fred Bartlit, said Monday that the investigation found no evidence that BP, Transocean, Halliburton or any of the other companies involved with the Macondo well had cut corners on safety to save money.
“Why cut corners if it is not for money?” asked Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser.
U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., also criticized the finding, saying BP had a history of not putting enough money into safety precautions.
But Graham, the commission co-chair, said the counsel’s statement might have been interpreted too broadly.
“The statement was that there was no evidence that there were conscious decisions made to trade off safety for profit,” Graham said. “I agree with that statement as it relates to those things that occurred on the oil rig itself.”
But he said the culture at the Macondo well “did not promote safety.”
“Leaders did not take serious risk seriously enough, did not identify risk that proved to be fatal,” Graham said.
Sen. David Vitter, R-La., asked to comment about the commission, didn’t offer any specific criticism. Instead, he suggested in a statement that its efforts might be in vain.
“Unfortunately, the oil spill commission has no real authority because the actual power lies with Carol Browner (energy policy coordinator) at the White House and Michael Bromwich at (Department of) Interior,” Vitter said. “Those Obama administration officials continue to fail the Gulf Coast by issuing ambiguous, sometimes unworkable regulations that prevent our people getting from back to work.”
Reilly also expressed concern that Congress, which hasn’t granted the commission its requested subpoena power, might not finance the robust regulatory staff needed to monitor future drilling operations.
Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club Lands Protection Program, said he has no complaints about the commission’s efforts to broker an early end to the deepwater moratorium, despite his group’s opposition to expanding drilling.
It was done in a way, Manuel said, that put into place new tougher safety standards.
“They’ve also been fairly creative in looking at the issues,” said Manuel, citing the commission’s review of whether safety protocols for nuclear power regulations could be applied to deepwater drilling.
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photo: Dave Martin, The Associated Press Oil spill workers continue cleaning tar balls and oil from the beaches of Orange Beach, Ala., on Tuesday. A BP official said deep cleaning operations would continue along the coast for some time.
Washington bureau reporter Jonathan Tilove contributed to this story.
Bruce Alpert can be reached at balpert@timespicayune.com or 202.383.7861.
Special thanks to Richard Charter