US Government to Take Over Gulf Oil Spill Response Website

The American government is expected to take over operations of the Gulf oil spill’s central information Website which has been in operation since the oil rig explosion disaster about two and half months ago. The website, deepwaterhorizonresponse.com, has been jointly operated by different agencies and BP however, Yahoo reports that the US Department of Homeland Security “wants a one-stop shop for information that is completely overseen by the government as it settles into the long-haul of dealing with the response to the disaster”. Consequently, the Website will be given a dot-gov address.

Although the joint partnership between the various agencies and BP is not expected to change, administrative rights pertaining to who can post information to be displayed on the site “would change”. Furthermore, the current Deep Horizon Response website is expected to be taken down once the move has been completed and more details on the Website take over should be released soon.

However, critics are quite sceptical of the take over, raising questions on whether it will improve the situation particularly with recent reports of tar balls being washed onto a beach in Texas – a sign that the crude oil has now reached all American Gulf states (Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and now Texas) in less than 3 months after the oil disaster.