Government Criticized on BP Oil Flow

[The Northerner]

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration repeatedly underestimated how much oil was flowing into the Gulf of Mexico from the stricken BP well, contributing to public fear about the accident and a loss of faith in the government’s ability to handle it, according to a sharply critical report from the presidential commission appointed to study the disaster.

The report, one of four made public on Wednesday, is sharply critical of senior administration officials for a series of inaccurate estimates of the amount of oil spewing from BP’s Macondo well and how much of it remained in the Gulf of Mexico after the well was capped.

The initial figure, released shortly after the well blew out on April 20 was 1,000 barrels a day, which was viewed at the time as significant but manageable. Over the next four months, the government figure was continually revised upward, even as independent scientists using more sophisticated methods were estimating a discharge rate many times higher than the official numbers.

Ultimately, government and independent scientists established that the uncontrolled flow was roughly 60,000 barrels a day for much of the spill, discharging nearly five million barrels of oil into the gulf. The well was capped on July 15 and officially declared dead in late September, when a cement plug was fixed to the bottom of the 18,000-foot-deep well.

The continual upward revision of flow rate estimates “undermined public confidence in the federal government’s response to the spill,” the commission staff said in its report to the seven-member investigative panel appointed by President Obama.

“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, 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.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/07/science/earth/07spill.html?_r=1&hp

[FiveGoodMen]

1. And the cheerleaders are already here trying to sweep it under the rug

At long last, have you no shame?

[FiveGoodMen]

2. No other responses at all!

Amazing what some people will allow if a D does it!