The Life of Reilly: How Will the New Oil Spill Commission Co-Chair Balance His Interests?

Does William K. Reilly face a conflict of interest with his new position as co-chair of the oil spill commission? As several others have suggested already, there may be tension between his task to issue recommendations on how to prevent the next oil spill disaster and his position as board member for ConocoPhillips.

But whether or not this works against taxpayer interests, at the very least, President Obama's decision to appoint Reilly demonstrates yet again how heavily the government relies on industry expertise in its response to the disaster. Which, as emptywheel points out, makes you wonder if the commission's findings will be foregone conclusions.

Former Senator Bob Graham is the other co-chair to the commission.

-- Bryan Rahija

Comments

[Observer V]

I hear the ole four-legs-good, two-legs-bad knee-jerk. When you hear Salazar posturing about "pushing BP aside," who do you think steps in? The USG lacks oil industry expertise. I say this knowing full-well that even BP lacks oil industry expertise. They seem like a clown show in the drilling and certainly the clean-up. But the government knows next to nothing, even if you harness the brains of Secy Chu (a great guy), the DOE labs (legends in their own minds) and NASA (yeah, great example of brains, safety management, etc.) But another oil company's savant may know something and have access to needed expertise. If you want to cleanse industry expertise out of all regulatory and study activity, what you get is a really industry-dumb agency: SEC is the best recent example. Ya gotta harness industry expertise, have rigorous conflict-of-interest controls, and enforcement of same. No way around it.