President Barack Obama announced the creation of a special White House commission to investigate the BP oil spill 25 days ago.
President Barack Obama announced his commission on the BP oil spill 25 days ago, but has yet to appoint all members. A few days later, he named the seven-member commission’s co-chairs: William Reilly, former EPA administrator under President George H.W. Bush, and Bob Graham, a Democrat who was governor of Florida in the 1980s.
Since then the names of two more members have surfaced — both of them environmental experts and one of them an advocate for restoring Louisiana’s coastline. The three other members have yet to be named, and no official appointments have been made other than the chairmen.
For a panel that is supposed to wrap up its inquiry in six months, and whose work will directly affect Louisiana’s future well being, this is a terribly slow start.
President Obama said in his May 22 radio address that the purpose of the commission “is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.”
He said he was directing the commission to produce “recommendations on how we can prevent – and mitigate the impact of – any future spills that result from offshore drilling.” Meanwhile, he ordered a six-month moratorium on deepwater exploratory drilling in the Gulf and tied it to the commission’s work.
The commission, as described by President Obama, has a big task ahead. It is puzzling why it is still awaiting members and has yet to be fully launched.
If Mr. Reilly and Mr. Graham are going to be able to do what the president has asked, they need to get started. President Obama ought to name the remaining members of the commission immediately. We hope that list includes a Louisiana resident who understands the workings of our economy.
It has been seven weeks since the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, setting in motion the worst oil spill in U.S. history. South Louisianians are simultaneously grieving the loss of lives and livelihoods. Oil is invading our fisheries and coating marshes and seabirds. Thousands of fishers are out of work and now thousands more oil service jobs are threatened.
We need to see the commission get on with its work.
Presidential commission on BP’s oil spill needs to start their work: An editorial
