Green group defends exec’s role on oil spill commission

The Natural Resources Defense Council said Thursday that it has taken robust measures to ensure its president’s role on a White House-created commission probing the BP oil spill doesn’t create conflicts of interest.

The environmental group’s comments come after two GOP senators attacked the membership of NRDC President Frances Beinecke on the commission that is exploring the spill’s causes and needed drilling safety reforms.

The senators noted in particular that NRDC has intervened in ongoing litigation to defend the Obama administration’s freeze on deepwater oil-and-gas drilling.

But in a post Thursday evening on NRDC’s blog, the group’s Litigation Director Mitch Bernard writes that by the time Beinecke was appointed to the commission, “we had put in place several conflict of interest protections, including a firewall between Frances and all of NRDC’s pending and potential litigation efforts.”

“Out of an abundance of caution, we determined this firewall should cover litigation on all issues, not just those dealing with offshore drilling,” he writes, noting that Beinecke stepped down from the NRDC committee that considers and approves all of the group’s litigation.

“She was removed from all email distribution lists that discuss proposed or pending NRDC litigation, and all staff were instructed not to speak with Frances about ongoing or potential NRDC cases,” Bernard writes.

President Barack Obama named Beinecke to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling earlier this month. Former Florida Sen. Bob Graham (D) and William Reilly, a Republican who headed EPA under former President George H.W. Bush, are co-chairs of the seven-member commission.

Bernard noted that NRDC’s intervention last week in litigation over the deepwater drilling freeze occurred without Beinecke’s knowledge.

A federal judge on Tuesday issued an injunction against the Obama administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, siding with several companies that provide services to offshore rigs that had challenged the ban.

“The firewall we have established will stay in place as NRDC appeals the district court decision enjoining enforcement of the moratorium. This litigation is consistent with NRDC’s efforts to help the people and the ecosystem of the Gulf,” Bernard writes.