President Obama: Commission's goal is to get to 'root causes' of Gulf spill

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Source: The Hill

President Barack Obama named the two co-chairmen of the executive commission to investigate the Gulf oil spill in his weekly address Saturday.

The president appointed former Florida Sen. Bob Graham (D) and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator William Reilly to the posts. Reilly served during the George H.W. Bush administration.

“While there are a number of ongoing investigations, including an independent review by the National Academy of Engineering, the purpose of this Commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent a similar disaster from happening again,” Obama said.

(snip)
“I can’t think of two people who will bring greater experience or better judgment to the task at hand. In the days to come, I’ll appoint 5 other distinguished Americans – including scientists, engineers, and environmental advocates – to join them on the Commission,” Obama said. “And I’m directing them to report back in 6 months with recommendations on how we can prevent – and mitigate the impact of – any future spills that result from offshore drilling.”

Read more: http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/99267-obama-commissions-goal-is-to-get-to-root-causes-of-gulf-spill

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http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/05/22/weekly-address-bp-spill-independent-commission

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