Well Acts ‘Plain Wrong’ or ‘Difficult to Explain,’ Reilly Says

Decisions in the hours before the blowout of BP Plc’s Gulf of Mexico oil were “difficult to explain or look like they were plain wrong,” said William K. Reilly, co-chairman of the presidential inquiry into the spill.

“It’s very difficult for me to conclude there was not a culture of complacency with everything involved with this experience,” Reilly said today in Washington at a hearing of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill.

The panel, which lacks the ability to compel witness testimony, plans to make a final request to lawmakers this month for subpoena power to give the investigation clout, Co-Chairman Bob Graham said.

“We are going to make one last effort in the next few days to try to get subpoena authority for this commission so we can go to the American people and say this is the best, most complete, objective report about what happened and what we should do about it,” Graham said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jim Efstathiou Jr. in New York at jefstathiou@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Steve Geimann at sgeimann@bloomberg.net