President Obama announced on Saturday that he is establishing a commission to investigate the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill. A former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, William Reilly, and Bob Graham, a former Florida governor and Democratic U.S. senator, will head the seven-person commission, Obama said.

“We need to take a comprehensive look at how the oil and gas industry operates and how we regulate them,” Obama said during his weekly address. “The purpose of this commission is to consider both the root causes of the disaster and offer options on what safety and environmental precautions we need to take to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.”

As an estimated more than 200,000 gallons of oil a day continued to spew into the Gulf, BP said on Saturday that it wants to keep using a particular chemical dispersant to fight the oil spill, despite orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to use something less toxic.

The chemical, Corexit 9500, is “the best option for subsea application,” BP’s chief operating officer, Doug Suttles, said in a letter to the EPA, according to The Associated Press. Tests showed Corexit was among the most effective agents at dispersing the oil, Suttles said.

The EPA raised concerns about the chemical on Thursday, saying the long-term effects remain unknown. The agency ordered BP to identify an alternative and start using it within three days of its approval by regulators.

BP found five products that met the EPA’s criteria, and said that Corexit appears to have fewer long-term effects. There were also not enough of the other chemicals immediately available to fight the huge spill, Suttles said.

EPA officials did not immediately respond Saturday to questions about BP’s decision.

The oil spill started on April 20 after BP’s Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded off the Louisiana coast, killing 11 workers. A blowout preventer, which is supposed to shut off the oil in case of an accident, failed. An underwater pipe ruptured and more than 6 million gallons of oil have leaked into the Gulf, according to many scientists’ estimates.

“This catastrophe is unprecedented in its nature and it presents a host of new challenges we are working to address,” Obama said in establishing the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling. “But the question is what lessons we can learn from this disaster to make sure it never happens again.” He added, “I want to know what worked and what didn’t work in our response to the disaster, and where oversight of the oil and gas industry broke down.”

By law, BP is required to clean up the spill. Though the company has made several attempts to stem the flow of oil, including plugging the blowout preventer with knotted rope and tires, none of them have worked. The company’s most recent solution is to cap the well using drilling mud, a process known as “top kill.” The company first said that it would start the process on Sunday. But on Saturday company spokesmen said that the earliest the process could start is Tuesday.

BP’s chief executive, Tony Hayward, remained cautious about the latest attempt, saying that this “would be another first for this technology at these water depths, and so we cannot take its success for granted.”

While initiatives continued to stop the oil flow and clean up the results, efforts were also under way to help people who have already been hurt. The Greater New Orleans Foundation said it would donate $50,000 to the Seedco Southeast Louisiana Fisheries Assistance Center, which provides assistance to commercial fishermen including private and public resources, business support services, job training, counselors and financial help.

Lesia Bates Moss, president of Seedco Financial, the umbrella group over the Fisheries Assistance Center, said the group intended to use the funds “to provide extended services to the fishermen as well as to their families; helping them to identify other resources that could help during this difficult time.” She added, “The small businesses we serve are important to the U.S. economy.”

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