Gulf Oil Spill Commission Official to Speak on BP Disaster, Energy Future

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011

CONTACT: Erin McKenzie
(919) 613-3652
erin.mckenzie@duke.edu

Note to editors: William K. Reilly will be available to speak with the media at 4:30 p.m. Jan. 24 in Von Canon Room B of Duke’s Bryan University Center. Media interested in attending should contact Erin McKenzie for assistance with parking, tickets to the event and other details.

DURHAM, N.C. -- One-half of the two-person team that led the presidential commission investigating the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history will visit the Duke University campus Jan. 24.

William K. Reilly, co-chair of President Barack Obama’s National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling, will discuss the findings and implications contained in the 380-page report examining the 2010 Gulf of Mexico spill.

The lecture, “Deep Water: The Gulf Oil Disaster and America’s Energy Future,” will be held in the RJ Reynolds Theater in Duke’s Bryan University Center. While the event is free and open to the public, tickets are required and can be reserved by contacting the University Box Office online, http://tickets.duke.edu, or calling (919) 684-4444.

Released last week, the Commission’s massive report calls for Congress to approve new regulations for offshore drilling as well as funding for an agency to oversee these rules—recommendations that Reilly will share with Congress the day after his visit to Duke.

“Our investigation shows that a series of specific and preventable human and engineering failures were the immediate causes of the disaster,” Reilly said in a recent press conference covering the report’s findings. “But, in fact, this disaster was almost the inevitable result of years of industry and government complacency and lack of attention to safety. As drilling pushes into ever deeper and riskier waters where more of America’s oil lies, only systemic reforms of both government and industry will prevent a similar, future disaster.”

Reilly’s talk starts at 5 p.m.; a reception will follow in adjacent Schaeffer Mall at 6:15 p.m.

The talk is presented by the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions and the Office of the University President. Reilly and fellow oil spill commission member Frances G. Beinecke both serve on the Board of Advisors of Duke’s Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, an organization devoted to helping decision makers address critical environmental challenges.

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A press kit is available at http://nicholasinstitute.duke.edu/events/reilly1.24.11.

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