Panel: Gov't Thwarted Worst-Case Scenario On Spill

The White House blocked efforts by federal scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could have been, according to a panel appointed by President Barack Obama to investigate the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.


In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission’s staff reveals that in late April or early May the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make public the worst-case discharge from the blown-out well. The Unified Command — the government team in charge of the spill response — also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says, citing interviews with government officials.


The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


But Jerry Miller, head of the White House science office’s ocean subcommittee, told The Associated Press in an interview at a St. Petersburg, Fla., conference on the oil’s flow that he didn’t think the budget office censored NOAA.


“I would very much doubt that anyone would put restrictions on NOAA’s ability to articulate factual information,” Miller said.


The April 20 blowout and explosion in the Gulf of Mexico killed 11 workers, spewed 206 million gallons of oil from the damaged oil well, and sunk the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

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