Obama Names 2 to Gulf Oil Spill Panel

President Obama announced today that former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and former EPA Administrator William K. Reilly will lead a presidential commission investigating the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Graham, a Democrat, is a former Florida governor and senator. Reilly ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President George HW Bush. His tenure at the agency included the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska.

"I can't think of two people who will bring greater experience or better judgment to the task at hand," Obama said. Obama intends to name five others to the panel, which will examine everything from what caused the spill to the safety of offshore drilling to operations at the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency that grants drilling rights. A report is due in six months. A month after the explosion, residents, elected officials and environmental groups are becoming frustrated with BP's failure to cap the well. They have called for the government to take charge. (More Gulf oil spill stories.)