Questions Mount About White House's Overly Rosy Report On Oil Spill

[IndianaGreen]

Questions Mount About White House's Overly Rosy Report On Oil Spill

by Dan Froomkin

Two congressmen on Thursday questioned why the Obama administration made a major announcement about what happened to the oil in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this month without the science to back it up .

Massachusetts Democratic Rep. Ed Markey demanded that NOAA surrender the data and algorithms behind its increasingly controversial estimate, so that independent scientists could assess the credibility of its conclusion that the vast majority of the oil BP spilled in the Gulf is gone,

<snip>

Since the oil budget went public, several independent scientists have called for the release of its supporting data. Others have reached their own, conflicting conclusions.

One group organized by the Georgia Sea Grant this week calculated that 70 to 79 percent of the oil remains underwater, and concluded that "the media interpretation of the report's findings has been largely inaccurate and misleading."

Scientists from the University of South Florida have found oil deep on the Gulf seafloor that they say may be more toxic to marine microorganisms than previously believed.

And in a major, peer-reviewed article in Science magazine, scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution on Thursday described their discovery in June of a plume of hydrocarbons that is at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. That's about the size of Manhattan.

Furthermore, the scientists found that contrary to the NOAA report, the oil was not "biodegrading quickly"-- at least not at that depth.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/08/20/overly-rosy-report-on-oil_n_688142.html

[flyarm]

1. well they HAD to shut down the reporting on it..didn't they? And it worked..

it screwed the people on the Gulf ..but that is just collateral damage right????????:sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :sarcasm: :grr: :grr: :grr:

Move along now..nothing to see..:sarcasm:

The powers that be know the American people have the attention span of a Gnat..tell them everything is AOK..and they move their 2 minute sound bite minds on to the next Natalie Holloway! And to help it along they hire people to go onto the internet to squash any truth there is !!

Easy to do..Bush did it for 8 years..it is all part and parcel of the tactics ........of our government and the MIC...and corporatism.

[villager]

2. sort of like the overly-rosy report(s) on the economy?

:shrug:

[madrchsod]

3. the water is fine and just smell the fish...

another Katrina like disaster

[Angry Dragon]

4. Why let the facts get in the way of a "good feeling story" ............??