President Obama finally took ownership of the oil gusher in the Gulf yesterday. A National Commission on the BP oil spill has been formed by the White House and will be headed by former Senator Bob Graham of Florida and former EPA Administrator Bill Reilly. In prepared remarks, the President said the ongoing calamity off the coast of Louisiana, “. . .is now the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history. Their job, along with the other members of the commission, will be to thoroughly examine the spill and its causes, so that we never face such a catastrophe again.” (Click here for the complete remarks from the President.) There is no telling when the mile deep broken well will be capped. The “top-kill” method failed that was tried over the Memorial Day weekend. Now, it looks like the well might not be brought under control until August. Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has launched criminal and civil probes into the spewing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. The AG said, “If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response,” Holder said. “We have already instructed all relevant parties to preserve any documents that may shed light on the facts surrounding this disaster. As our review expands in the days ahead, we will be meticulous, we will be comprehensive, and we will be aggressive. We will not rest until justice is done.” (Click here for the complete Holder story.)
The spill is already the biggest in U.S. history. Now, the only question is how big will it get? Government estimates say there could be as much as 43 million gallons of oil already spilled into the Gulf. Private estimates are much higher; and, remember, oil could belch out of the broken well until August. I talked about that in a recent post called “Freeze BP’s Assets Now.”
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