White House blocked science panel report on "Worst-case Oil Spill Estimate"

Not that I ever believed that this administration was science based, but it is interesting to see the difference in media reaction to claims that the Bush and Obama administrations put the kibosh on some sort of science report. The Obama actions did get some coverage, but not on the national evening news reports.

The White House blocked efforts by federal scientists to tell the public just how bad the Gulf oil spill could have been, according to a panel appointed by President Obama to investigate the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

In documents released Wednesday, the national oil spill commission's staff reveals that in late April or early May the White House budget office denied a request from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to make public the worst-case discharge from the blown-out well. The Unified Command — the government team in charge of the spill response — also was discussing the possibility of making the numbers public, the report says, citing interviews with government officials.

The White House didn't not immediately return a telephone call seeking comment.

But Jerry Miller, head of the White House science office's ocean subcommittee, told The Associated Press in an interview at a St. Petersburg, Fla., conference on the oil's flow that he didn't think the budget office censored NOAA. . . .