White House accuses BP of ‘falling short’

In a letter to Tony Hayward, chief executive, the secretaries of the Department of Homeland Security and Environmental Protection Agency said it was “imperative” that the oil company “promptly provide” the government with the results of internal corporate investigations and other data pertinent to the gulf disaster.
While BP faces pressure to comply with the government request, attempts by the administration to gather internal legal documents could be challenged, as those are typically considered private. The DHS and EPA said they were not aware of any data that would be considered “confidential business information”, but that any such claim would be “handled in accordance with the law”.
“The public and the United States government are entitled to nothing less than complete transparency in this matter,” the letter concluded. It also called for BP to make publicly available “any data and other information” related to the spill including water samples, monitoring plans, reports collected by BP or any of its contractors, subcontractors or agents, and any reports it had attained “through other means”.
The letter did not specify that the government had any knowledge of information that BP was holding back from the government.
After requests from Congress, BP made public videos of the leak in the underground pipe. Although the company has said it was capturing 5,000 barrels a day of oil from the leak – the same amount it has estimated it is spilling every day – videos show that oil is still leaking. The company told Bloomberg that it was not measuring the oil around the tube.
Congress is set to continue seeking answers on the extent of the spill today at a hearing before the House energy committee.
BP did not immediately comment on the letter.
The letter comes as BP faces more questions on Capitol Hill about why more information has not been released into what is known about the extent of the spill and its potential damage. Senator Barbara Boxer of California on Thursday repeated calls for the justice department to open an inquiry into BP for allegedly making false statements to US regulators when it claimed in filings that it would be able to manage a devastating spill on the gulf coast.
The well, which began leaking after an April 20 explosion aboard the drilling rig, is about 5,000ft below the surface.

"The Financial Times"