I don't know man, but this is an awesome article, linked below.
Part of the problem is that when people can no longer see the oil, everyone just stops worrying about it. Out of sight, out of mind. It's pretty much uncharted waters as to what the long term ecological consequences are, I don't think there's been much long term assessment and monitoring of major oil spills; aka, prince william sound. There's not been nearly enough data or long term assessment to know what the f went down. Which leads to people making a lot of assumptions, proclamations, and guesses, about what actually happens to the biosphere.
And as you can see with this article, just like the tobacco companies, and the climate denier corporations, these corporate dudes are going to fund their own groups of hired-gun scientists to try to put their spin on things. It corrupts the scientific process. The tobacco company scientists, and the climate deniers think tank "scientists" have, and are going to end up in the Science Hall of Shame. But posterity doesn't change the fact that corporate hired guns corrupt the scientific process. Presumably, the steps outlined in this article to have publically funded science step up to the plate will preserve the scientific integrity of the process. But, BP has a lot of money to finance some hired-gun scientists. Much like tobacco and oil companies funded the sh*t out of cancer-denying and climate-denier think tanks.