Why has the BP Oil Spill Panel Never Been Formed in The Senate?

Having “blogged” for many years, and seeing how the blogosphere is emerging (or deteriorating as the case may be) I have decide to try it here. Recently, many events have shown a disturbing lack of change (and hope) wrt our dialogues and debates about technical issues, science, oil and gas, etc. The BP oil spill has brought out the worst in partisan political rhetoric, and using it and selected science and engineering (many times pushed by pseudo-experts) information to further political agendas. This joins clean air, the environment in general, and the old and nasty anthropogenic global warming, as battlegrounds for partisans to pontificate seeking to further their political agendas. It occurs to me that nothing will be done along the lines it should in these technical fields, i.e. the scientific method of objective inquiry, as long as the partisan approaches dominate our conversations.
The examples of “confirmation bias” (http://www.sciencedaily.com/articles/c/confirmation_bias.htm)
are rampant these days. Not only in media like TV, talk radio, etc., but also in the blogosphere (Huffington Post, etc.) where blog authors adamantly refuse to allow diverse and opposing views of most anything they post. This is leading to greatly increased exaggerations, hyperbole, and polarized national debates on most all issues. This is not healthy for society and is disastrous in scientific and engineering topics, as it is so opposed to the scientific method and processes. If we are to solve technical and societal problems, we must come to a more open, honest, and non-partisan discussion and debates.
Having prefaced my first blog entry with that, let me show a rare example of Congress (the Senate in this case, even more surprising) stepping in and stepping up to correct a potentially disastrous chain of events precipitated by President Obama in appointing a technically unqualified and politically slanted commission to study the BP oil spill.
(http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/106603-senate-panel-approves-creation-of-competing-gulf-oil-spill-commission)
Most technical people inside and outside the oil industry were extremely disappointed when President Obama named this commission, pointing out the obvious problems. This also came on the heels of an attempt by Ken Salazar to fraudulently use scientists’ names to justify a moratorium on drilling, when the scientists made no such recommendation. My congratulations to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee (over the objections of their chair no less), for standing up for scientific integrity and against slanted, partisan politics.
However, as of today, Senator Bingaman has not allowed this panel to be formed. Why? Is he afraid of something they may uncover? Or did his bosses tell him to stonewall any effort at an unbiased and truly expert panel to look into the spill? We are still waiting Jeff.