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BP 'absolutely' will pay for Gulf oil spill cleanup, CEO says
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 3, 2010 -- Updated 1911 GMT (0311 HKT)
Workers deploy a boom in Drum Bay, Louisiana, on Sunday in an effort to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
With every passing hour and every passing day, the oil spill continues to grow and affect the ecosystem on the Gulf Coast. Tonight, Larry King looks at the effectiveness of responses to the oil spill. "Larry King Live," 9 ET.
Washington (CNN) -- BP will "absolutely be paying for the cleanup operation" of the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, chief executive Tony Hayward said Monday. "There's no doubt about that."
"It is indeed BP's responsibility to deal with this and we're dealing with it," Hayward told NPR's "Morning Edition." And, he added, "where legitimate claims [of damages] are made, we will be good for them," according to NPR's website.
The Justice Department, however, has sent a team to the Gulf Coast to meet with federal prosecutors and response teams, the department has said. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that Justice employees are in the Gulf region "to ensure that BP is held liable."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other Obama administration officials are scheduled to meet with Hayward and BP America President Lamar McKay on Monday afternoon to "discuss ongoing, coordinated response efforts and receive an update on BP's mitigation plans for potentially impacted Gulf Coast states," according to an administration official.
Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, also stressed during an interview with CNN on Monday that BP "is the responsible party" and "will bear all the costs" of the cleanup.
BP has been "responsive" so far, Allen said. "It is a matter of trying to get the right resources at the right place against [the backdrop of a] complex and changing environment."
Hayward's and Allen's comments came as BP's ruptured undersea well off Louisiana continued to spew about 210,000 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico. Efforts to corral the rapidly growing oil spill have so far been unsuccessful.
There is currently a sheen of oil ranging up to 60 miles across and threatening the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the Florida Panhandle, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The overall area impacted by the spill, CNN estimates, is almost as large as the state of Delaware.
The slick was still nine miles off the Louisiana coast early Monday, but seas of 6 to 10 feet have made deploying booms to fend the spill off the coast "somewhat problematic," Allen said.
Federal officials have banned fishing for at least the next 10 days in a portion of the northern Gulf of Mexico that includes the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday extended a state of emergency to 13 more coastal counties in Florida because of the spill. He had issued an emergency declaration last week for six counties on the western end of the Florida Panhandle; Monday's declaration added the rest of the Panhandle, and counties on the Gulf Coast of the main Florida peninsula as far south as Sarasota.
"In the event that the oil does come to our shores, I want us to be ahead of it as much as humanly possible," he said about the spill, which the oil giant BP is responsible for cleaning up.
The Gulf Coast's commercial fishing industry brings in about $2.4 billion a year to the region.
By the CNN Wire Staff
May 3, 2010 -- Updated 1911 GMT (0311 HKT)
Workers deploy a boom in Drum Bay, Louisiana, on Sunday in an effort to control the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
With every passing hour and every passing day, the oil spill continues to grow and affect the ecosystem on the Gulf Coast. Tonight, Larry King looks at the effectiveness of responses to the oil spill. "Larry King Live," 9 ET.
Washington (CNN) -- BP will "absolutely be paying for the cleanup operation" of the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, chief executive Tony Hayward said Monday. "There's no doubt about that."
"It is indeed BP's responsibility to deal with this and we're dealing with it," Hayward told NPR's "Morning Edition." And, he added, "where legitimate claims [of damages] are made, we will be good for them," according to NPR's website.
The Justice Department, however, has sent a team to the Gulf Coast to meet with federal prosecutors and response teams, the department has said. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday that Justice employees are in the Gulf region "to ensure that BP is held liable."
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and other Obama administration officials are scheduled to meet with Hayward and BP America President Lamar McKay on Monday afternoon to "discuss ongoing, coordinated response efforts and receive an update on BP's mitigation plans for potentially impacted Gulf Coast states," according to an administration official.
Adm. Thad Allen, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, also stressed during an interview with CNN on Monday that BP "is the responsible party" and "will bear all the costs" of the cleanup.
BP has been "responsive" so far, Allen said. "It is a matter of trying to get the right resources at the right place against [the backdrop of a] complex and changing environment."
Hayward's and Allen's comments came as BP's ruptured undersea well off Louisiana continued to spew about 210,000 gallons of crude a day into the Gulf of Mexico. Efforts to corral the rapidly growing oil spill have so far been unsuccessful.
There is currently a sheen of oil ranging up to 60 miles across and threatening the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama, as well as the Florida Panhandle, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The overall area impacted by the spill, CNN estimates, is almost as large as the state of Delaware.
The slick was still nine miles off the Louisiana coast early Monday, but seas of 6 to 10 feet have made deploying booms to fend the spill off the coast "somewhat problematic," Allen said.
Federal officials have banned fishing for at least the next 10 days in a portion of the northern Gulf of Mexico that includes the mouth of the Mississippi River in Louisiana.
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist on Monday extended a state of emergency to 13 more coastal counties in Florida because of the spill. He had issued an emergency declaration last week for six counties on the western end of the Florida Panhandle; Monday's declaration added the rest of the Panhandle, and counties on the Gulf Coast of the main Florida peninsula as far south as Sarasota.
"In the event that the oil does come to our shores, I want us to be ahead of it as much as humanly possible," he said about the spill, which the oil giant BP is responsible for cleaning up.
The Gulf Coast's commercial fishing industry brings in about $2.4 billion a year to the region.
