Wasted money, diverted attention

Sand Berms Captured Little Oil, Panel Finds Sand piles designed to block oil in the Gulf of Mexico from hitting the Louisiana coast captured a "minuscule" amount of petroleum at an "overwhelmingly expensive" cost, according to a government report. The report by the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling also says that federal officials who coordinated the government's cleanup efforts in the Gulf approved the use of berms not because they believed they would succeed in trapping oil but in response to the pleas of Louisiana politicians, whose demands "overwhelmed" the government's scientific analysis.

• Complete Coverage: Gulf Oil Spill