Gulf Oil Spill

Obama Launches Bipartisan Commission

To tackle the oil spill disaster and prevent future ones.

The president has called for a bipartisan commission to develop methods for preventing oil spills, and is expected to announce the decision Saturday. The commission, co-chaired by former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida and former EPA official William K. Reilly, will have six months to develop a report for what will be known as the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. Meanwhile, cleanup efforts for the BP spill are growing more complicated politically and environmentally, and the company is in the process of compiling what its chief operating officer called “a massive amount of equipment” at the site in hopes of successfully stemming the flow of oil into the ocean with a proposed “top kill” method. “We will not rest, even if they secure the flow, even if this ‘top kill’ is completed successfully next week,” said a Coast Guard official, adding that “we have a long row to hoe” to minimize the spill’s damage.