A presidential commission looking into the BP plc (BP) oil spill accident said on Wednesday that the White House in the spring blocked release of government estimates on the worst-case scenario of the amount of oil that was spewing from BP’s well in the Gulf of Mexico.
According to Reuters, the commission said its staff was told that “in late April or early May that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration wanted to make public some of its long-term, worst-case spill models for the Deepwater Horizon accident and requested approval from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget to make the information public.”
“Staff was told that the Office of Management and Budget denied NOAA’s request,” the commission said in a draft report on the amount of oil spilled and what happened to it.
Shares of BP gained 25 cents, or 0.65 percent, to $41.60 at 1:27 p.m. ET in recent New York Stock Exchange composite trading.
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