"White House Pushes Back on Spill Report"

"The White House is pushing back against the draft reports the National Oil Spill Commission released Wednesday  on the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that included scathing criticism of the administration's handling of the disaster. The reports' harshest criticism was directed toward the administration's handling of information about the size of the spill and the extent of the damage.

'This was an unprecedented environmental disaster met with an unprecedented federal response which prevented any of the worst-case scenarios from coming to fruition,' White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Thursday. 'When we had information, we gave it to the public.'

He also refuted the report's claim that the Office of Management and Budget blocked another federal agency from releasing estimates about the worst-case scenario for the spill. 'No information was altered. No information was withheld. And nothing in the report had anything to do with the robust response,' said Gibbs."

Kate Sheppard reports for Mother Jones October 8, 2010.

SEE ALSO:

"WH Defends Oil Spill Predictions After Report Claims It Hid Worst-Case Numbers" (TPM Muckraker)