GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — President Obama on Monday set out on a three-state tour of the stricken Gulf Coast, while the White House said BP appears willing to set up the kind of victims compensation fund Mr. Obama is demanding.
The president’s two-day trip to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida begins a busy week in the government’s attempt to get control of the nation’s worst environmental disaster. Mr. Obama plans to address the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night after his return, and he is to meet with BP executives face to face for the first time on Wednesday.
The White House get-together is expected to include the company’s much-criticized CEO, Tony Hayward. Later in the week, company officials will have to face Congress in hearings on the spill.
The White House has been using the power of the presidency to extract concessions from BP as efforts continue to stop the leak. They add up to Mr. Obama’s most concerted efforts so far to assert leadership in face of the calamity.
Spokesman Bill Burton, speaking to reporters traveling with Mr. Obama aboard Air Force One to the Gulf, said the White House and BP were “working out the particulars” of the victims compensation fund, such as the amount of the fund and how it will be administered. The account would be run by an independent third-party entity, Mr. Burton said, and would run into “the billions of dollars,” although he wouldn’t give a specific amount.
“We’re confident that this is a critical way in which we’re going to be able to help individuals and businesses in the Gulf area become whole again,” the spokesman said.
BP’s board was meeting Monday in London to discuss deferring its second-quarter dividend and putting the money into escrow until the company’s liabilities from the spill are known. BP spokeswoman Sheila Williams said earlier that the company was aware of the White House’s demand for a compensation fund, but she declined to comment further.
The administration earlier said Mr. Obama was prepared to force BP, if necessary, to set up the fund. Mr. Burton said that Obama aides are “confident we have the legal authority” to do that, but he didn’t expand on how, saying it wasn’t necessary, “considering BP is going to do this.”
In his Tuesday-night speech, Mr. Obama aims to help guide the country through what’s been done to date, what his administration will do going forward and how people in the region will be made whole.
For instance, Mr. Burton said, Mr. Obama will address both worker safety and food safety “to make sure the American people know we’re doing everything we can and we’re monitoring in each and every place possible.”
The symbolism of using the Oval Office for an address for the first time in the Obama presidency was deliberate, and a decision made by the president himself, Mr. Burton said. “What we’re seeing in the Gulf is a catastrophe the likes of which our country has never seen,” he said.
The administration said earlier Monday that BP had responded to a letter sent over the weekend asking the company to speed up its ability to capture the spewing oil from its well 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface.
In its response, BP said it would target containing more than 2 million gallons of oil a day by the end of June, up from about 630,000 gallons of crude a day now. High-range estimates from researchers advising the government have said that as much as 2.1 million gallons a day could be billowing from BP’s runaway well.
U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said BP’s commitment would be reviewed over the next couple days by outside industry experts to “make sure it’s going to be responsive.”
Asked how much oil is still being released daily despite the containment efforts, Adm. Allen said it remained unclear. “That’s the $100,000 question,” he said on Air Force One.
Regardless, the leak won’t be killed for good until relief wells are completed in August.
Already, potentially more than 100 million gallons of crude have leaked into the Gulf, far outstripping the Exxon Valdez disaster.
Mr. Obama’s first three trips to the Gulf took him to the hardest-hit state, Louisiana. On Monday, Day 56 since BP’s leased Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded and unleashed a fury of oil into the Gulf, he was starting his trip in Gulfport and then traveling along the coast to Alabama. His day included a speech and a ferry ride to view barrier islands in Alabama where oil has come ashore. Mr. Obama has not taken to the water in his previous Gulf visits.
He was to meet state and local officials eager for him to show command, provide manpower and supplies, and also tell the public that despite the catastrophe that’s crippling the fishing and tourist trades, many beaches are still open.
“Essentially, we’re trying to manage this through a committee form, and it’s a committee where any one member has absolute veto power,” Alabama Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday.
“I don’t think you can do that,” Mr. Riley said. “I think we’re going to have to set priorities. We’re going to have to implement a plan to achieve those goals if we’re going to get through this.”
Also Monday, BP said in a statement that its costs for responding to the spill have risen to $1.6 billion, including new $25 million grants to Florida, Alabama and Mississippi. It also includes the first $60 million for a project to build barrier islands off the Louisiana coast. The estimate does not include future costs for scores of damage lawsuits already filed.
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