White House Challenges Oil Spill Report

The White House is challenging a report on the Gulf Coast oil spill that claims the administration worked to prevent the public from learning the disaster’s worst case scenario.

“We were as candid as we could be with the information we had,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday.

The report, which was compiled by the staff of a presidential commission established to investigate the spill, states that “by initially underestimating the amount of oil flow and then, at the end of the summer, appearing to underestimate the amount of oil remaining in the Gulf, the federal government created the impression that it was either not fully competent to handle the spill or not fully candid with the American people about the scope of the problem.”

The report also charges that the administration attempted to prevent scientists from openly discussing the crisis.