Atlantic coast now under threat as current spreads Gulf oil slickScale of disaster becoming apparent as tar balls reach Florida and Gulf of Mexico no-fishing zone doubles in size-snip-
Salazar also conceded there were "a few bad apples" among the inspectors of the MMS, and promised that if they over-ruled environmental advice from other government agencies – as was alleged by some senators – they would be punished. "If there is someone in the department who ignored the science, then heads will roll," he said.But Nancy Sutley, the chair of the White House council on environmental quality, told a Senate hearing later yesterday she had raised concern in February about a widespread policy of waiving environmental reviews for offshore drilling.
Salazar was also adamant that the administration had been right to seek an expansion of offshore drilling last March, and made it clear there would be no revisiting that decision.
The White House this week intensified its efforts to limit the potential political damage on November's mid-term elections by backing an independent commission to investigate the disaster. In testimony yesterday defensive actions also included dogged resistance by administration officials to senators' demands to provide estimates of the size of the spill.The stonewalling went beyond the Senate hearings. For the past 48 hours, officials have resisted reports by scientists that the spill could have entered the loop current, or downplayed their significance. "By the time the oil is in the loop current, it's likely to be very, very diluted. And so it's not likely to have a very significant impact. It sounds scarier than it is," said Jane Lubchenco, the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/may/18/oil-spill-threatens-atlantic-coast
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