A top House Democrat blasted the Obama administration today over its report on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill that the lawmaker says gives a "false sense of confidence" about the health of the Gulf in the wake of the disaster.

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's Energy and Environment Subcommittee, voiced his concerns over an interagency report released this month that says all but 26 percent of the oil released from the ruptured BP PLC well has been accounted for.

"Intended or not, the reaction to the oil budget report was one of relief," Markey said during a rare recess hearing on Capitol Hill. "People want to believe everything is OK, and I think this report and the way it is being discussed is giving many people a false sense of confidence regarding the state of the Gulf."

"Overconfidence leads to complacency," Markey added. "And complacency got us in this situation in the first place."

At issue is the Aug. 4 interagency report that categorizes the fate of the spilled oil. While the report says all but a fourth of the oil has been accounted for, many scientists have blasted the findings, saying the report does not place enough emphasis on the effects of the dispersed oil, a category the government report says accounts for 24 percent of the spill.

The outside scientists have also criticized the report as being presented with more certainty than it deserves.

"I find it troubling to give these very precise numbers, very precise estimates, for things that are just extrapolations," said Ian MacDonald, an oceanographer at Florida State University, in an interview earlier this month (Greenwire, Aug. 5). MacDonald testified at today's hearing and repeated his concerns, saying the report is "misleading."

Bill Lehr, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, told Markey the report was compiled as part of the emergency response and was only just now undergoing scientific peer review. After that review -- in about two months -- the government will release an updated report that includes data and models used to calculate the estimates.

But that time frame did not please Markey.

"To me, that's unacceptable," he said. "We need to have that information. Many people are making decisions based on that report."

Lehr said he would try to speed up the report's release, but he stressed that the agencies wanted to ensure that it was done right.

Markey fired back. "You shouldn't have released it until you knew it was right," he said. Gulf residents don't want the risks "to be downplayed or lowballed."

Under questioning by Markey, Lehr conceded that 10 percent of the 172 million gallons of oil that actually spilled into the Gulf -- and was not immediately captured by BP -- could truly be accounted for.

The government report used an estimate of 206 million spilled gallons as the basis for the calculations, but using the smaller figure of 172 million gallons is more accurate, Lehr said, because it takes into account the 33.6 million gallons that BP immediately captured.

Other lawmakers have also blasted the administration's decision to release the report without the data.

"It is deeply troubling that White House officials apparently pre-empted the completion and review of a scientific study on the oil spill by NOAA scientists in order to tout conclusions that many experts believe may be deeply flawed," said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, in a statement. "This irresponsible action only adds to the perception that the Obama White House is more concerned about appearing competent than actually making sure the massive oil spill in the Gulf gets cleaned-up as quickly as possible."

Issa said he, too, will push the White House to release the full findings of the report.