The woman who led the federal government's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 said Wednesday she will leave her post at the end of February.
“I have decided to return to my family and academia,” Jane Lubchenco, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, wrote to NOAA employees.
No successor was immediately announced for Lubchenco, who has held the job since 2009. She became well-known to the public for her role in response to the BP oil spill off the coast of Louisiana in April 2010.
Her agency was accused of accepting for too long the oil company’s low estimates for the amount of oil leaking. It also was criticized for a report saying that by August of that year most of the spilled oil was gone, or at least not visible. The agency said much of it had dispersed naturally, had burned or was removed.
A few weeks later, a study by independent scientists reported an invisible, 22-mile underwater plume of oil ingredients. And NOAA acknowledged the deepwater oil was not degrading as fast as they initially thought.
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