Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., charged the Obama administration with keeping oil and gas drilling experts off its seven-member commission in favor of people who philosophically oppose offshore exploration.

And Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, said there was a huge conflict of interest in putting environmental advocates on a panel responsible for investigating the spill and recommending new safety mandates for offshore drilling.

Obama launched the commission last month and tasked it with conducting a six-month probe of the Deepwater Horizon disaster and a rigorous review of drilling safety. Its findings could dictate the future of offshore drilling and lead to major changes in the way the government polices oil and gas production along the nation's coasts.

Scientists, engineers

The roster of members includes science and engineering experts, as well as a renewable energy advocate who has complained about America's oil addiction and a marine science professor who recently appeared to endorse a delay of planned drilling along the East Coast.

There are no representatives with deep ties to the oil and gas industry, although one of the co-chairmen, William Reilly, was administrator of the EPA under President George H.W. Bush and a director of ConocoPhillips before temporarily stepping down to serve on the commission.

The other co-chairman is Bob Graham, a Democratic former Florida governor and U.S. senator who has opposed offshore drilling near the Sunshine State.

The panel's just-appointed executive director, Richard Lazarus, is a legal expert at Georgetown University who has represented environmental groups in arguments before the Supreme Court.

The commission's makeup already has drawn criticism from oil and gas industry boosters and in some newspaper editorials.

In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Thursday, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar defended the commission's members, saying they were "very distinguished people ... who will transcend partisan politics and ideology" in investigating what caused the Deepwater Horizon rig to explode April 20.

Barrasso and Bennett targeted Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of several environmental groups that unsuccessfully defended the Obama administration's deep-water drilling ban against a legal challenge in a court hearing Monday.

Bennett called Beinecke's appointment troubling because she "has an ideological position with respect to drilling and, indeed, heads an organization that's filed a lawsuit on this area."

In a blog entry on NRDC's website Thursday, the group's New York City-based litigation director, Mitch Bernard, defended Beinecke as an independent and said she had been excluded from all decision making and communications about the council's legal work since her appointment.

Barrasso said the panel's makeup defied Obama's assertion that he wants an independent review of the oil spill.

"The commission's background and expertise doesn't really include an oil or drilling expert, so … people across the country are wondering about the administration's goals," Barrasso said. "Is it really about making offshore energy exploration safer? Or is it about shutting down our offshore and American oil and gas?"

Promises fairness

Salazar dismissed the senators' criticism.

"What is wrong is the playing of politics with this issue," Salazar said. "This is an issue of a national crisis."

Salazar likened the group to the commissions that have investigated other disasters, including the explosion of the Challenger space shuttle and the partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant.

The panel members are elder statesmen and stateswomen, Salazar said, adding that he was confident the commission would be thorough and even-handed. When studying areas where it doesn't have expertise, he said, the panel will interview professionals who do.

jennifer.dlouhy@chron.com