By JOHN M. BRODER
WASHINGTON — Scientists warned Monday that oil from the spill in the Gulf of Mexico was moving rapidly toward a current that could carry it into the Florida Keys and the Atlantic Ocean, threatening coral reefs and hundreds of miles of additional shoreline.
Government officials insisted that the oil had not yet entered the gulf's so-called loop current, and that they were continuing to monitor the movement of the spill closely. But two independent scientists, analyzing ocean current and satellite data, said the oil was in an eddy that was quickly being drawn into the current, portending a much wider spread of the hazardous slick.
The White House, meanwhile, said late Monday that President Obama would soon name an independent commission to investigate the cause of the spill and the response to it, largely supplanting the inquiry now being conducted by the United States Coast Guard and the Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency responsible for overseeing offshore oil operations. The role of both agencies in approving the drilling, preparing for an accident and supervising the cleanup are part of any overall inquiry and have raised questions about the independence of their work.
Several members of Congress and outside experts have demanded that an independent panel be created, modeled on those that investigated the Three Mile Island nuclear plant accident in 1979 and the Challenger shuttle explosion in 1986. No current members of government will serve on the panel, which will have a broad charter and wide investigative authority, a White House official said.
rest at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/18/us/18spill.html?th&emc=th
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