"USGS Director Quietly Wages 'Fearless' War on Oil Spill"

"Though she has stayed behind the scenes for most of the federal response to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, U.S. Geological Survey Director Marcia McNutt has emerged in the past week as a bold, forthright translator of the web of numbers and scientific estimates surrounding the spill.

She has gone out on a limb to make projections beyond those from other scientific experts, spoken plainly about her own feelings on the spill and implied in congressional testimony yesterday that the federal government may have been too trusting of assurances from oil companies prior to the spill.

In doing so, colleagues say McNutt has fallen in line with a pattern the Navy Seals-trained explosives expert has demonstrated throughout her career, when she has shown she is not afraid to take risks or press for new scientific and technological advancements."

Allison Winter reports for Greenwire June 16, 2010.