Obama Meeting With Oil Spill Panel Chairmen Bob Graham, William K. Reilly

ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE, Md. — President Barack Obama planned to meet Tuesday with the co-chairmen of an independent commission investigating BP's catastrophic spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A senior administration official said Obama will meet at the White House with Bob Graham, who is a former Florida governor and U.S. senator, and William K. Reilly, a former head of the Environmental Protection Agency.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting had not been formally announced.

It will be Obama's first meeting with the group since naming the commission less than two weeks ago.

The session comes three days after BP said its latest attempt to stop the oil spewing out of a broken well 5,000 feet underwater had failed, and four days after Obama visited coastal Louisiana to assess the situation and assure residents frustrated by the government's response that he is doing everything possible to fix the well.

Amid concern that the worst oil spill in U.S. history could threaten his presidency, Obama has stepped up his public appearances to demonstrate that he is engaged. He held a White House news conference Thursday, focused almost entirely on the oil spill, and followed that with the Gulf visit on Friday.

Obama still must name five members of the commission, which will investigate such issues as what caused the spill, the safety of offshore drilling and operations at the federal agency that grants drilling rights.

The administration official said Obama was not expected to announce those names on Tuesday.

The Gulf oil spill began April 20 when BP's Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers and rupturing the underwater pipe.

In the six weeks since, the government estimates that between 19.7 million and 43 million gallons of crude have poured into the Gulf – affecting beaches, wildlife and the local economy and making it the worst spill in U.S. history.

After BP announced Saturday that its latest attempt to stop the oil, known as a "top kill," had failed, Obama said that disappointing news was "as enraging as it is heartbreaking."

It was the latest in a series of failed efforts by the British oil company to shut off the oil flow. BP will try again as early as Wednesday when it attempts to put a cap on the leaking well so oil can be siphoned to the surface.

Comments

[Gilliam G]

03:33 AM on 06/02/2010

Dear Mr. President, before wasting any more time meeting with an "Oil Spill Panel" please read this open letter to you and give it some consideration. Time is of the essence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NjPcDmktk

[AnnT]

03:25 PM on 06/01/2010

“Deliberate sabotage?

http://www.nola.com/news/gulf-oil-spill/index.ssf/2010/05/hearings_rigs_blowout_prevente.html

"...The chief mechanic on the Deepwater Horizon testified Wednesday that he was at a planning meeting 11 hours before the rig exploded at which the BP company man overruled drillers from rig owner Transocean and INSISTED ON DISPLACING PROTECTIVE DRILLING MUD from the riser that connected the rig to the oil well.

"..."I recall a skirmish between the company man, the OIM (offshore installation manager), the tool-pusher and the driller," said Doug Brown, one of 115 rig workers who survived the April 20 disaster. "The driller was outlining what would be taking place, whereupon the company man stood up and said, 'NO, WE'LL BE HAVING SOME CHANGES TO THAT.' It had to do with displacing the riser for later on. The OIM, tool-pusher and driller disagreed with that, but the company man said, 'Well, this is how it's gonna be,' and the tool-pusher, driller and OIM reluctantly agreed."

"...The implication was that the Transocean employees expected they might have to take emergency action because of BP's PUSH TO REMOVE THE DRILLING MUD.

"...Before Brown came to the witness stand at the hearings in Kenner, a ship captain with 15 years of drilling experience told the joint investigative panel that he doesn't know why a rig would DISPLACE THE PROTECTIVE COLUMN OF HEAVY MUD with light seawater before closing off a well.”

[nexxtep54]

03:39 PM on 06/01/2010

Pencil pushers seldom offer good mechanical advice.

[nexxtep54]

03:20 PM on 06/01/2010

They should discuss this fix. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ByPEQNDFE_4&feature=channel

[stopthemadness69]

12:30 PM on 06/01/2010

I hope we the people will remember to keep the bulk of the anger where it belongs, on BP, transocean and haliburton, on the people who made the conscious decision to cut corners knowing full well they had no idea how to fix the end result.

To blame the president more or as much as you blame BP reminds me of what most women do when their man cheats, they blame the woman not the man that swore he would be faithful to them and them only. They want to scratch her eyes out but they stay with the man.

[Gilliam G]

03:37 AM on 06/02/2010

The blame game is truly a big waste of time at this point.
Drastic measures need to be taken now. Every minute wasted playing the blame game means more damage to the sea life and their environment not to mention the human cost.

Dear Mr. President, before wasting any more time meeting with an "Oil Spill Panel" please read this open letter to you and give it some consideration. Time is of the essence:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_NjPcDmktk

[stopthemadness69]

08:50 AM on 06/02/2010

The administration already has other oil company experts working on this along with government scientists and engineers, private sector scientists and engineers. No one knows how to stop this other than with relief wells. The technology for clean-up also has not progressed in the government or in the private sector. We are doing the same things today as we did in 1979 during the last gulf spill. I know it is comforting to think that there is someone out there with a magic fix for this but there isn't. If this is stopped it will be by the relief wells or some new technology or idea but to suggest that all the president needs to do is call other oil companies in because they surely have the fix is wrong, they don't. And yet you have politicians from the region still in favor of more drilling. Politicians who will run to the side of big oil when they start crying that the new proposed rules on them will hurt business or be cost prohibitive.

[ljc]

12:06 PM on 06/01/2010

This site is broken again. The Obama news thread disappeared completely. Maybe you guys at HP could redirect your efforts away from "social networking" and back to news?

just a thought.

[downhomer]

11:54 AM on 06/01/2010

he's spend three and has used only 1300of the 6000 troops wasup with that man

[huff-fan]

12:06 PM on 06/01/2010

What?

[ljc]

12:09 PM on 06/01/2010

Huh? giggle.

[downhomer]

11:53 AM on 06/01/2010

govern given 25 miliion hes sped three

[Telemachus]

12:44 PM on 06/01/2010

SDen vsdfkl ekxdg ox . wlek

[downhomer]

11:47 AM on 06/01/2010

what about bobby jindah

[Telemachus]

11:54 AM on 06/01/2010

Jindal, you mean? Maybe he could serve as chai wallah.

[Bama Girl]

11:16 AM on 06/01/2010

http://www.wkrg.com/gulf_oil_spill/article/oil-pics-off-gulf-shores/892145/May-31-2010_10-50-pm/

[BannedNBoston]

10:58 AM on 06/01/2010

Obama should have had the Military blow up the well week 2!!

NH farmers you are being massively chemtrailed in the West and North.
I observed huge tankers crisscrossing the state going into VT too.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=90486&l=7af49a5177&id=100001039804456

[dragonmaster]

10:45 AM on 06/01/2010

Obama is still trying to play the pragmatic middle of the road gig here- and frankly this type of philosophy is getting nowhere and pleasing no one.

He needs to lay the law down to BP- and threaten them with Government takeover of their wells.

He also needs to tie this disaster into the greater good of the environment- and tie it with climate change--he again seems to be missing political opportunity and to do the morale right in correcting this horrific catastrophe.

Remember this- the spill in the gulf- is no different the unprecedented amount of Co2 we are simultaneously spewing into the atmosphere.

[huff-fan]

12:25 PM on 06/01/2010

He has tied it to action on climate change again and again.

Bp is the best equipped to solve this. Government regulation has not kept up with the growing risks of deep sea drilling. Bp has the best chance of stopping this leak.

I have not seen any articles on what caused this or if better regulation would have prevented the explosion. Determining the cause is the purpose of the commission.

Carter was right back in the 70. Many blame the oil industry for blocking progress on green energy sources. While that is true. It our democracy often stands in the way of progress --all the people who deny climate change science, who discredit the scientist, who disdain tree huggers, and who do not want government to tell them what to do to protect our environment.

The same thing has happened with health care reform. Many people do not want a govt solution to the skyrocketing costs of health care. It is the uniformed who stand in the way of progress.

[fredsc]

08:33 AM on 06/01/2010

The same William K Reilly who took on Exxon and negotiated a staggering $100 million dollar fine:

Exxon to Pay $100 Million Fine And Plead Guilty in Valdez Spill
By KEITH SCHNEIDER, Special to The New York Times
Published: March 13, 1991

Final arrangements for the guilty plea, including a review of the agreement by the E.P.A. Administrator, William K. Reilly, are being worked out ...

http://www.nytimes.com/1991/03/13/us/exxon-to-pay-100-million-fine-and-plead-guilty-in-valdez-spill.html?pagewanted=&pagewanted=print

[Doreen1960]

08:10 AM on 06/01/2010

As a Florida resident most of my life, I have a lot of respect for Bob Graham and I know
he has all of our best interests at heart..Bob is one of those rare politicians who gets things
done..

[espressobeans]

07:28 AM on 06/01/2010

Apart from effective government oversight instead of the Bush/Cheney regulatory welcome mat for bug oil when drill permits were applied for, I wish Obama had formed an independent commission for a second opinion on how to stop this and how to contain this on Day One. We can worry about how it happened and why it happened once we've stopped the bleeding. Sure BP has all the equipment. They also have a glaring self-interest that may or may not be driving decisions. It's suicidal to blindly trust them.

[Sally Saffer]

10:51 AM on 06/01/2010

I'm sure that there is a huge information commission handling how to stop and contain this and have been involved from the beginning. At the same time, we need to collect info and data a.s.a.p. while it is still available and those involved can be interviewed. Neither BP nor the Federal Regulators of the oil industry should be given time to destroy evidence and bribe witnesses. There is no reason why both things can't happen simultaneously. There are times when big government means lots of people doing lots of things wrong; there are also times when big government means lots of people doing lots of things RIGHT!

[maxfax]

07:21 AM on 06/01/2010

Hooray, a meeting at the White House, that'll show BP who's boss.

[TheIndependenceParty]

02:13 PM on 06/01/2010

The secret meeting with Cheney told the Oil Companies who were the bosses!