May 23 (Bloomberg) -- President Barack Obama named Democrat Bob Graham, a former U.S. senator and Florida governor, and Republican William Reilly, a former Environmental Protection Agency administrator, to lead a presidential commission to investigate the BP Plc oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
In his weekly address on the radio and Internet, Obama said the commission, which he established by executive order, will consider the “root causes” of the accident and find ways to “prevent a similar disaster from ever happening again.”
To work with Graham and Reilly, Obama said he will name five other commission members, directing them to report in six months with recommendations “on how we can prevent, and mitigate the impact of, any future spills” at offshore wells.
“We can only pursue offshore oil drilling if we have assurances that a disaster like the BP oil spill will not happen again,” Obama said. “This commission will, I hope, help provide those assurances so we can continue to seek a secure energy future.”
After the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank last month, BP estimates that 5,000 barrels of oil per day has been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico. BP has succeeded in siphoning some oil from the leak, 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) below the surface, and pumping it to ships.
In his address, Obama called the oil spill an “environmental disaster” and said the nation’s “best minds are using the world’s best technology” to try to stop the leak. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson is scheduled to visit the Gulf today to monitor her agency’s response and speak with residents, according to EPA.
Obama said the accident was caused by a breakdown in responsibility on the part of London-based BP, Geneva-based Transocean Ltd., the company from which BP leased the rig, and Houston-based Halliburton Co.
Held Accountable
“We will continue to hold the relevant companies accountable” for stopping the leak, repairing the damage, and repaying financial losses, he said.
Obama also said the federal government should be held accountable.
“If the laws on our books are inadequate to prevent such an oil spill, or if we didn’t enforce those laws, I want to know it,” he said. “I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.”
Inspections Ordered
Obama has already announced plans to split the revenue and regulatory functions of the Minerals Management Service to prevent conflicts of interest, ordered inspections of all deepwater drilling operations in the gulf and issued a moratorium on new drilling.
“But we need to do a lot more to protect the health and safety of our people, to safeguard the quality of our air and water, and to preserve the natural beauty and bounty of America,” Obama said.
BP said it would cooperate with the investigation.
“We share the goal of the President and the public to know what happened to cause this accident and what regulatory and industry changes are needed to help prevent something like this from happening again,” Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive officer, said in an e-mailed statement.
Republican Response
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican, said in a statement that “in addition to the companies that were drilling, it is important also to know what the administration approved.”
“We know that this administration approved the site. We know that this administration approved the spill response plan,” McConnell said. “Hopefully in the course of the testimony we’ll be able to figure out what went wrong not only with the companies themselves, but with the oversight of the companies.”
In the Republican weekly address, Louisiana Senator David Vitter called on the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to immediately start work -- “with BP, by the way, appropriately footing the bill” -- dredging material from rivers and deltas to build up barrier islands to help protect the coast from oil.
Vitter also said he is working with other Gulf Coast legislators to back legislation that raises the liability cap for companies responsible for spills to the greater of “the last four quarters of the responsible party’s profits” or double the current $75 million limit.
The measure would also encourage research on ways to cap wells and develop booms to prevent the spread of oil in rough seas.
“That would make offshore drilling safer, smarter and more reliable,” Vitter said.
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