Oil runs so deep in American life that when President Barack Obama formed an independent commission to investigate the Gulf spill, he ran into something of an oil patch of his own.
Both commission chairmen had stock in BP as well as broader interests in the oil industry. Another commissioner, a university fundraiser, is chancellor at a school that received millions from BP. Another had substantial ties to Transocean, owner of the Deepwater Horizon rig that exploded in the Gulf of Mexico and set off the spill.
Ethics waivers released by the White House in response to an Associated Press request indicate the commissioners shed at least some of their investments and interests that might pose a conflict of interest.
But a full public accounting has not been made because the seven-member commission, despite Obama's relentless call for openness in government, is operating with fewer requirements for public disclosure than some previous panels, including the 9/11 commission of the Bush era.
The oil industry is so thoroughly connected with government and academia that it can be difficult to find prominent people for a commission who have not been touched by oil money. Even lifelong environmentalists are not exempt from that exposure; oil companies routinely support and work with conservationists on engineering and alternative energy research despite often being at loggerheads over drilling.
A storied US agency, one that began under President Kennedy in 1961 with the aim of...
