Asia-Pacific
US presidential commission to probe oil spill
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-05-18 09:55
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 Flames rise in a representative drawing as BP America Chairman and President Lamar McKay testifies at the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing on "Gulf Coast Catastrophe: Assessing the Nation's Response to the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill" on Capitol Hill in Washington May 17, 2010. [Agencies] |
HOUSTON/COCODRIE, La. -- President Barack Obama will create a presidential commission to probe the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and energy giant BP said on Monday it had "turned the corner" in its efforts to contain it.
London-based BP Plc said its latest "quick fix" -- a mile (1.6 km)-long siphon tube deployed by undersea robots down to the leaking well-- was capturing about a fifth of the oil leaking from the ruptured well. Officials cautioned that the tube is helping contain the oil but will not stop the flow.
BP's stock rose more than 2 percent in London on the news but later shed its gains.
Investors have knocked $30 billion off BP's value over the spill, which followed the April 20 rig explosion that killed 11 workers and the fallout it faces is ramping up.
The commission, which Obama will establish with an executive order, will be similar to those that looked into the explosion of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986 and the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in 1979, an official said.
It will investigate issues related to the spill and its aftermath, including rig safety and regulatory regimes at the local, state and federal levels.
The federal government's oversight role, environmental protections, and the "structure and functions" of the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency that has been heavily criticized for its regulatory practices, also will be on the panel's agenda.
With a shakeup of the agency imminent, Chris Oynes, the top official overseeing its offshore oil and gas drilling, announced he would retire at the end of the month.
Still, lawmakers and Gulf coast residents braced for an ecological disaster that could eclipse the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska's coast.
"The problem is this blowout is putting more oil in the water in one and half days than have been put in this water in the last decade. That is startling," Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu told a Senate committee hearing.
'People Are Freaking Out'
While the US Gulf Coast has so far been spared a massive landfall of heavy oil, small amounts in the form of surface sheen and tar balls, have come ashore in outlying parts of the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
"People are freaking out. They see the news and think oil is everywhere, but it is not," said Michael Dorie, co-owner of Wild Native and Five Rivers Delta Safaris, which takes people on eco-tours of Alabama's Mobile Tensaw Delta.
"If it all dries up and disappears, well the highlight of my tours is wildlife and pretty flowers. Take that away and my tour becomes just a boat ride. If people see oil slicked birds, how many more will not come?" he added.
