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Obama's First Oval Office Speech Will Pressure BP on Escrow Account

1 year ago
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President Obama, speaking to the nation from the Oval Office for the first time on Tuesday night, will pressure BP to create an escrow account to compensate businesses and workers impacted by the oil spill, the New York Times reports. BP is discussing the creation of the account, as well as a brewing controversy over dividends it planned to pay shareholders this summer, at an emergency meeting this morning. It will not announce any decisions until after BP leaders meet with Obama mid-week.

The speech is part of a week of activities planned for the president to demonstrate leadership on the crisis in the Gulf, where millions of gallons of oil have been pouring into water for nearly two months. Obama will also spend the next two days visiting three coastal states threatened environmentally and economically by the catastrophe.

The White House hopes the moves will signal that the president has taken charge of the spill, though he is virtually powerless to stop the flow of oil. Obama has faced relentless criticism, including from Democratic strategists, for seeming too detached and responding too deliberatively to the disaster.

Obama's meeting Wednesday with BP officials follows a mild controversy last week over the president refusing to call BP CEO Tony Hayward, who has made several embarrassing comments about the spill. (Hayworth originally said the spill would be "very, very modest" because it is happening in "a big ocean.") Obama said he was "not interested in words. I'm interested in actions."

The administration gave BP until the end of the weekend to provide a better estimate of how much oil is leaking into the gulf. The company was installing robotic sensors near the ruptured wellhead to take measurements, and said the work would be completed by Tuesday.

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snkeyes420

Well if BP is siphoning 630,000 gallons per day and there is still oil gushing out. It seems that the spill is quite a but more than 5,000 barrels per day

June 15 2010 at 5:27 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
oldsrokkit

Meanwhile, the news channels are reporting that lightning has struck the oil rig and halted containment efforts. As a result, the oil is flooding out of the pipe at even higher levels than usual. This is painful to watch. The oil is just FLOODING out of the pipe! http://www.oilcam.info/

June 15 2010 at 4:00 PM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply
rrogearmil

Oil spill from the ocean bottom in the Gulf. 60% of those polled say it is the U.S.A. fault. 40% blame BP. We don't who the audience was--could have been a one-sided population. You know--like all Republicans--or Republicans who register as Democrates or Independents. (There is room enough for millions of political false-identies to be polled.) I bet if the President acquiesced to false claims that he was at fault, the oil spill would be stopped in 7 days, maybe 4 days. See where I'm going? Treason. A crime against the U.S.A. "[...but, if it profits,] none dare call it Treason." And with that profit, tens of thousands of locals citizens can be paid by BP to clean that area of the environmental destruction from the BP mistake for the next 5 years. And, if that was not enough, here comes Exxon to champion BP. This reminds me of The Seven Pillars of Wisdom in which is said--I'm no thief, ask my friend.

June 15 2010 at 12:13 PM Report abuse -2 rate up rate down Reply
conservgirl8

Taking charge, I hope means that he will not do the usual blaming, threatening of prosecution and BP slamming he's been doing. We need to hear him speak of solutions to the gushing oil in the gulf and what he plans on doing about it.

BP has already accepted responsibility, investigations are underway to find where/who's negligence it is. When that is finalized we will all know and they will be made to pay.

We need solutions not lecturing on the same topic over and over again.

June 14 2010 at 12:01 PM Report abuse +3 rate up rate down Reply
RICHARD BONNET

BP BETTER PUT BILLIONS OF MONEY IN ESCROW.AFTER THE CLEAN-UP IN THE GULF, THERE WILL BE MILLIONS OF LAWSUITS INVOLVING CLEAN-UP WORKERS ALLEGING THEY GOT SICK FROM THE CLEAN-UP. IN SOME CASES IT MIGHT BE TRUE, BUT IN OTHER CASES IT WILL BE A SCAM INORDER TO MAKE MONEY.
IT WILL MAKE CLAIMS BY 911 WORKERS LOOK LIKE PEANUTS.
ITS THE AMERICAN WAY.

June 14 2010 at 11:40 AM Report abuse +2 rate up rate down Reply
johndeagun

The man sure can Dither and blame folks thats for sure.

June 14 2010 at 11:05 AM Report abuse +1 rate up rate down Reply

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