White House’s oil spill calculations prove controversial
AUG 05, 2010
DOI: 10.1063/PT.5.024559
New York Times : Last week, a team led by Energy Secretary Steven Chu and the director of the US Geological Survey, Marcia McNutt, issued an estimate of the amount of oil that had flowed into the Gulf of Mexico from the now-stopped Deepwater Horizon oil rig: 4.9 ± 0.5 million barrels (0.8 gigaliters). A followup report by USGS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration provided estimates of where that oil ended up. Justin Gillis and Leslie Kaufman of the New York Times report that both estimates are proving controversial, especially given that the numbers imply that the damage caused by the oil spill is less than originally feared.
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