Oil Spill: Obama Creates Investigative Commission

This independent body, which must provide recommendations within six months, will be directed by former Florida Senator Bob Graham and the former director of the American Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), William Reilly.

Barack Obama isn’t finished with the oil spill. One month after the catastrophe in the Gulf of Mexico, the American president announced Saturday that he set up an independent investigative commission in order to shed light on the causes of this ecological drama. The oil spill continued, in its turn, to invade the Louisiana coast on Saturday, with BP still demonstrating impotence in stopping the leak.

This body, whose creation had been announced at the beginning of the week, will be composed of seven members. Created by executive order, it must provide recommendations within the next six months on how — in the future — to avoid and reduce the impact of a possible oil spill caused by offshore drilling.

“This catastrophe is unprecedented in its nature, and it presents a host of new challenges we are working to address,” affirmed the American president in announcing the commission’s creation. “But the question is what lessons we can learn from this disaster to make sure it never happens again.”

Barack Obama also announced that the former Democratic governor of Florida — one of the states affected by the pollution — and former Senator Bob Graham will co-chair the commission with former Republican boss of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), William Reilly. “I can’t think of two people who will bring greater experience or better judgment to the task at hand,” noted the head of state, who then specified that the five other members of the commission would be appointed in the coming days from among scientists, engineers and environmental advocates.

A New Attempt by BP, Called “Top Kill”

In addition, since the explosion of the Deepwater rig on 22 April, oil continues to spill in great quantities each day into the Gulf of Mexico, at a depth of 1,500 meters. Up until now, BP, which operated the rig, has not succeeded in blocking the spill emanating from the wells. The group is now preparing a new attempt, called “Top Kill,” which consists of injecting liquid into the well, then sealing the wells with cement. This initiative was originally to have begun on Sunday, but had to be postponed at least until Tuesday. The mild weather during the next few days should, however, allow the pursuit of these current initiatives to stop the flow of crude oil.

According to Barack Obama, his administration had deployed 1,100 vessels, about 24,000 personnel and more than 600 km of protective barriers to help contain the oil spill. “And we’re doing all we can to assist struggling fishermen, and the small businesses and communities that depend on them,” he explained.

The ecological catastrophe has equally led to calls to end offshore drilling, but Barack Obama has come out against such an option. He thus recalled that he had promised to reduce American energy dependence and that the catastrophe did not call into question this objective. “Because it represents 30 percent of our oil production, the Gulf of Mexico can play an important part in securing our energy future,” he noted.

“But we can only pursue offshore oil drilling if we have assurances that a disaster like the BP oil spill will not happen again,” said the American president, however, before concluding that “the Commission will, I hope, help provide those assurances so we can continue to seek a secure energy future for the United States of America.”