Panel: Lowballing oil spill number akin to Custer

WASHINGTON - The head of a White House-appointed panel examining the BP oil spill Monday compared the federal government's underestimate of the spill's size to Gen. George Custer's fatal lowballing of the number of Indians at Little Big Horn.

The two co-chairmen of the national oil spill commission said early government estimates caused the public to lose trust in what it was being told. The spill was about 60 times bigger than first estimated.

Incident Commander Thad Allen told commissioners the low estimates didn't hamper government response, but panel co-chair William Reilly said he had trouble believing that.

The two-day meeting of the spill commission will also look at other potential missteps by the administration, including the controversial use of chemical dispersants, a moratorium on deep-water drilling and President Barack Obama's plans to make the Gulf of Mexico's environment better than it was before the accident.

"Much was done well in responding to this spill, other things not so [well]," said panel co-chairman Bob Graham (D-Fla.).

Few companies will meet new environmental and safety rules in the month after Obama's moratorium on deep-water drilling comes to an end, said Michael Bromwich, director of the U.S. office that oversees offshore oil exploration.

The moratorium, which idled 33 rigs, is likely to end before it is set to expire Nov. 30, said Reilly.

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