A chairman of the federal commission investigating the summer-long oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is set to discuss the government's findings in Durham this January.
William Reilly, co-chair of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, will give his insider's view of the panel's thinking and conclusions at the Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University.
Reilly, a board member on Duke's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions, is likely to attract national media attention when he discusses the federal study here.
The report is expected to recommend tighter regulation of drilling and a reduced reliance on foreign oil, setting the tone for future policy debate.
Reilly's presentation on Jan. 24 will be free to the public. Reilly will speak shortly after the scheduled release of the federal report on Jan. 12.
The oil spill that raged unchecked for nearly six months this year was the world's largest petroleum accident, releasing millions of gallons of crude oil into the Gulf and far beyond. It resulted in a moratorium on offshore drilling and hurt the fishing and tourism industry. The initial explosion that sank the rig killed 11 men and resulted in a oil gusher nearly a mile beneath the surface of the ocean.
John Murawski has been a full-time newspaper reporter since 1991, with stints at Legal Times and The Chronicle of Philanthropy (both in Washington, DC), The Philadelphia Inquirer and The Palm Beach Post (in South Florida) before arriving at the N&O in December 2004. At the N&O he covers energy (nuclear, coal, renewable, efficiency), utilities (electric, natural gas, telephone) and telecommunications. His beat includes such publicly traded companies as Progress Energy, Duke Energy, PSNC Energy, Piedmont Natural Gas, PowerSecure International, Tekelec, Cisco Systems, AT&T, among others. You can reach him at 919-829-8932 or 
