Oil Spew Commission and the Moratorium

Bloomberg reported:

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal again sought an end to President Barack Obama's moratorium on deepwater oil drilling as he met Monday with two members of the president's commission investigating the BP oil spill: former Florida Sen. Bob Graham and National Geographic Society executive Terry Garcia.

"The moratorium is not in our sweet spot of assignment," Graham said.

Not in the sweet spot? Then which of the seven investigative panel's has it? It turns out the Oil Spew Commission subcontracted the job:

A report last week by the Washington-based Bipartisan Policy Center said the drilling ban, scheduled to expire Nov. 30, may no longer be needed.

The moratorium allowed time for both industry and government to make offshore drilling safer, the report said. The oil spill commission had asked the center to look into the wisdom of using a moratorium to prevent spills in the aftermath of the BP disaster.

So the Commission co-chaired by William K. Reilly, sought out the Bipartisan Policy Center, founded by Tom Daschle, BPAmerica External Advisory Commission member?

Reilly co-chairs the policy center's energy panel, in addition to sitting on the ConocoPhillips board of directors, a joint venture partner with BP. To resolve this conflict, Reilly took a leave from the Conoco board. Yet his stock holdings remain. Frances Townsend sits on Bipartisan Policy Center's board. She works for Baker Botts, a longtime BP law firm.

If the moratorium isn't within the purview of Obama's Oil Spew Commission, why did they ask for help from the Bipartisan Policy Center? While none of the conflicted names mentioned appear on the report, it has a malodorous air.