‘In a scientific integrity complaint filed this week by the group, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility contends the e-mail is evidence of White House pressure to low-ball the size of the BP spill, which ultimately totaled 5 million barrels.
‘The complaint, filed with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, targets a NOAA senior scientist who PEER says prepared a July 2010 report summarizing the findings of one of the flow teams. PEER accuses the scientist, William Lehr, of selectively representing the team’s work to highlight low flow estimates at the expense of higher ones that were more accurate. Lehr, PEER alleges, wanted to “accommodate the desires of … the White House and the National Incident Command.”
‘NOAA declined to comment on the PEER complaint and a White House spokesman did not respond to a request for comment. In a statement, McNutt said PEER had taken her e-mail out of context.
‘“I was expressing to the [group] my frustration with how to simply convey the results from multiple methods for measuring flow rate. This is clearly not a simple problem. The [group] worked as quickly as possible to develop accurate estimates of flows five thousand feet below the surface, mindful of the importance of this information to the response effort. We communicated complex scientific information. The public information for the May 27 flow rate announcement reported fast-breaking results from experts in multiple time zones across the nation as part of a real-time, nonstop response effort. We were constantly working with the press and the public to improve information, fill in details, provide clarification, and answer questions about difficult concepts. The record, the report and my comments on the May 27 press call clearly document this.”’
—
