kind of and e fate or compassion for the deaths of those people and focusing on why that flotilla was heade toward e gaza. doou know that israel has not played by the rules, the roles they want others to play by, that they continuedo expand illegal settlements since the oslo ad and our mediand the gold stowed report, judge goldstone, who is jewish and a total supporter of israel based on the 1967 borders, total supporter anyway, he did that report on what went on in the gaza and our congress people and the israeli lobby shut the goldstone report down. this guy is internationally regnized and honored, jud goldstone, and our congress people would not even read american troops leaving haiti. writing that the bulk of u.s.

military forces will depart haiti today. leading un forces and civilian groups to help the country rebuild the devastated capital in the wake of the january earthquake that killed several hundred thousand people. . . also from "the wall street journa -- turkey, a staunch ally, leads and the outcry. this and you were saying -- -- this viewer saying -- republican line, good morning. caller: i know for a fact that -- on the oil spill, not t spill, but the busted pipes, that the oil company handling it right now, it could have been fixed the day after it happened.

by simply blowing it up, and that could have been done and that is forear -- for real now, i'm serious, they could have blown up. but then they would not have gotten the oil out of it and that is the problem. they are tryinto save the oil and they could have blown it u the oiley can't capture -- caller: when it was leaking they could have blown it up and sealed it, but they could not have went back in there and gotten the oil. host: thanks for the call. looking at som of the international headlines. this is from "the guardian." israel is accused of ate terrorism. if you log onto aljazeera english website they had its perspective, the coverage.

here is part of their reporting. >> under cover of darkness israeli special forces in descending as it made its way to inrnational waters toward gaza. it was not meant to be geared the israeli raid tned deadly with soldiers opening fe with live ammunition. those injured received medical attention on board, but for others, it was simply too late. these imageshow the chaos and confusion that ensued in the deadly minutes that the chaos and folded. >> areaf hostility -- the london israeliorces warned the cargo vessel not to proceed toward gaza where it risked being intercepted. the military said its forces opened fire in self defense and had been attacked once they boarded the ship to comndeer it away from israel. but and aljazeera producer aboard the ship saw tha

activists raised a white flag and described the first few minutes. >> the organizers -- two people were confirmed killed -- have asked all the passengers to go inside. they raised the white flag, this after israel and commanders descended upon the ship in internatiol water. host: a reporter from aazeera. "the washington post" has this editorial. this twitter comment -- >> is a viewer from centerville,

virginia. -- is a viewe from centerville, virginia. youre on the air. go ahead. caller: everybody isalling in this morning and talking about this is a real -- israel stuff and talking about th borders down there in arizona and all that. i don't understand why the whole thing, everything people call in about, nobody knows nothing about or ty get different answers or cclusions to solve the problems. why doesn't somebody just get togeer, make plans, and do what needs to be done? host: "usa today" -- world of troubles for the u.s. anxiety in the gulf, tensions in korea and protest in the gaza. charlotte is joining us from all

cretonne, florida. democrats line -- boca raton, florida. caller: that is the problem, that' >> we leave this recorded program to go live to new orleans. eric asher is getting ready for his radio show. today, it will be about the oil spill in the gulf. the station is hosting this program and it is starting momentarily. >> new orleans, it is time for the man who tells it like it is. you want information. he has got it. "inside new orleans with eric asher" -- here is our man, aaron

asher. -- eric asher. ♪ >> good afternoon, new orleans. welcome to those who are watching along the cable systems around the united states on c- span, you are listening to the mighty 690. here we go. day 43 now of the oil leak in the gulf. over the weekend, the attempt to stop this leak -- almost 40,000 gallons at this point is what we

are being told 18-40 million gallons spilled into the gulf. of course, the top kill jump shot scenario procedure failed ovvr the weekend. now bp launching its ninth plan to try to stop the leak. they have been at this for 24 hours, cutting off the pipes are round the riser and hoping to fit a custom built cap over the leak. this is not going to be a pressure sealed cap. it is the latest attempt to stop this leak. this is threatening our very way of life in louisiana. where was louisiana's problem for the most part, because of the currents and tides and the wind coming out of the south over the last few weeks, it looks as though oil could be reaching the coast of alabama, dauphin island, alabama. this is becoming a problem for

the entire gulf coast as we enter the first day of hurricane season. we're being told by forecasters that this will be an above average hurricane season. possibly a double whammy for those of us on the gulf coast. it will be talking about all the way until 3:00 this afternoon. we want to let the people around the country feel what we are feeling down in south louisiana. especially in the aftermath about what was the biggest disaster. we're talking about the aftermath of hurricane katrina. new orleans was fined after katrina. that is right, we were. until the levees broke. the biggest man-made disaster in the history of this country -- substandard engineering, materials. to an opportunity for politicians and those in the

corps of engineers to stand in front of reservoirs and dams and talk about these great monstrosities instead of concentrating on what they should have been concentrating on, not just here in louisiana, but around the country. when you look at the corps of engineers levies and what they protect around this country, you'll be very surprised to see how many states have the corps of engineers levee or a levy that is overseen by the corps of engineers and now we are dealing with what looks like the second biggest man-made disaster in the history of this country. again, it is a man-made problem. greed, cutting corners by a major oil company in the name of profits instead of worrying about the people that what effect, the wildlife it would affect. at the end of the day, much like

we saw with the building of our levee systems back in the 1960's, we are seeing tte same exact problem in the gulf. this is a twofold problem for louisiana. in a lot of cases, when you look at the state of louisiana, are seafood industry is huge here in louisiana. number one oyster producer and the -- in the country. 7 i% of the nation's alligator harvest right here in louisiana. that is ineffective now by the oil that is inundating our wetlands. this story is yet to be told. we will get into that and we will talk a little bit about what is going on with the dispersants.

is able to deal with louisiana sweet crude a better than the 9500 is. but the president wanting to shut down deepwater drilling, 22 of the 33 rigs in deep water off the louisiana -- in the gulf of mexico, 22 of the 33 are off the louisiana coast line. those of us in louisiana, because when you look at how we are, in a lot of cases, we are involved in the oil and gas industry, it is a huge money producer for the state. there is a lot of mixed feelings here. in a lot of cases, we feel like oil companies sold us a bill of goods because of the incestuous relationship between the new mexico as -- mms and oil

companies. because of lobbyist out there -- lobbyists out there are the ones that set the parameters for the bills that are being set forward. when you look at lobbyists within the oil industry and you look at that and says she was relationship between -- you look at the incestuous relationship between mms and the oil companies. when you talk about louisiana, we are gasping for breath. finally coming back from the biggest man-made disaster in history of this country. finally coming back almost 45 years later as areas along st. bernard and along the coastline of louisiana.

you talk about the disintegration of our islands and the wetlands. we know that louisiana has been drilling for oil since 1901. first oil rig off -- because of that, when you talk about louisiana, what we bring to the table, we have allowed oil companies to be able to go through and cut their pipelines were wetlands that they can service those pipeline canals. this pipeline canals that flow into the state of louisiana into our refineries, to be able to get to those canals of and are wetlands and barrier islands, allowing these oil companies to cut through those. that allows salt water intrusion on one end and on the back end. the quest to be able to harness

the mississippi river. the corps of engineers have start the wetlands of the sediments that are necessary to be able to feed those wetlands. yes, we are a big part of this nation when it comes to energizing this country. we have given up our air, our land, and our water to energize this country. at the same time, now we are facing an enemy that we cannot see. a lot of people in the state of louisiana are concerned and now along the gulf coast. the one thinggthat i want to get across to the nation is that yes, there is a reason to save louisiana. when you look at the largest port complex in this country, when you look at what we bring to the table in terms of feeding

this country and energizing this country. to be able to make sure we offload oil both imported and domestic to deal to refine here in the state of louisiana. 690.re listening to the mighty we have a great guest list for deeper it at 12:30, -- we have a great guest list this afternoon. at 1:00, we have a coastal scientist for the environmental defense fund. at 1:30, you have heard him on he is a wetland economist -- ecologist.

we have a local horticulturist. he will join us at 1:30 this afternoon. we will talk about how we can build these land birds and keep them in place and use a type 8 moss grass that will literally sustain itself with this oil spill. it sucks up the hydrocarbons from an oil spill. when he will join us at 2:00. she is the vice president of louisiana's restaurant association. >> you are tuned into a and 690. -- am 690.

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♪ >> your listing to the almighty 690 -- you aae listening to the mighty 690. i would like to welcome those watching on c-span. louisiana, the gulf coast. the entire gulf coast can listen and at am 690. let the nation know how you feel about what is going on with the bp oil leak out in the gulf. in louisiana, we are torn. oil and gas exploration is a huge part of how this state makes ends meet. we are first in crude oil production in this country,

first in the natural-gas. first and mineral revenue of any source to the federal government. louis -- little louisiana. we're second and total energy production. we are first in all foreign oil import value. we're first in natural gas processing capacity, second in petroleum refining capacity. second in total energy from all sources. it is amazing when you think about it. will louisiana. when you talk about louisiana, and you talk about art ouster continental shelf territory, our territory off the louisiana coast line is the most extensively developed in the united states. the state of louisiana has

produced about 85.4% of the 16.7 barrels of crude oil and 81% of the 162 trillion cubic feet of natural gas that has been extracted from territory. little louisiana. louisiana produces 79% of the oil and 70% of the natural gas produced in the entire united states. we produced 83.5% of the oil and 73% of the natural gas produced in the outer continental shelf. we're torn here. louisiana, we want to stop the leak and protect our great coast line. it is the estuary and habitat for a lot of the wildlife. we want to protect our way of life, whether it be the cajun cullure. but it is so much more than the cajun culture.

it truly is a gun belt and louisiana. -- a gumball -- gumbo in louisiana. it truly is a gumbo of people of come together to fix our waters here in louisiana. it is big money here in louisiana. the boats are dormant. they sit in the dock. when you talk about where we are right now in terms of louisiana and the gulf coast, unprecedented. over 62% -- over 26% of the gulf is closed to fishing. 62,000 square miles of the gulf of mexico is now closed to fishing. it is sad. now we have to deal with another problem.

corrected 9500. --re told that there have that has been used by bp in the gulf. we're scared. everyone of us is afraid because we did not know with this ongoing experiments in the gulf how it will affect our wildlife. i will give you my own personal opinion. when you start looking act corrected 9500 and you look at what is going on in the gulf, for bp, in my opinion, it is a lot easier for bp to deal with sprang this corrected 9500, which was used on the oil with the spill of the exxon valdez in alaska. developed by exxon, manufactured in illinois.

when you talk about this dispersant and why we are so afraid in louisiana right now, ii is because we are not sure of what the after effects of this are. we realize and we believe at this point that bp allowed and used this corrected 9500 dispersants because it would have been a public relations nightmare to be able to have this oil sheen that can stretch for literally miles on the gulf war as a few disbursed this into little droplets under the ocean surface, there is always going to be some conjecture one way or the other on how much oil is out there. again, i have not believed bp from day one. there is another chemical out there that could have been used

that would have worked on this week louisiana crude better than the spirted corrected 9500. it is called dispersant. it is a water based material and when you start talking about 9500, it is four times toxic than oil itself. why was dispersant not used? why did we not have the opportunity to be able to study this more before bp went down and started spraying best into the gulf of mexico? especially when dispersant is about one-third the toxicity of corrected 9500. it's absolutely amazing. dispersant is much less harmful and it is a water based product.

it has already been approved to be 100% effective on the lighter louisiana crude. bp will say, we have large quantities of this available. who cares? we are looking at what is going to happen in the gulf 5-10-15 years from now. when you talk about what the louisiana wetlands means to this country, it is not only the first and second line of defense from a hurricane, but it also is the estuary for this country. when you talk about the wildlife that migrate here from the north, birds, fish that spawned in our estuaries, wetlands.

go back into the gulf. we are scared. we're scared because we are seeing -- we're getting hit on many fronts here. what would be able to save our great seafood? our wetlands? our way of life? on the back end, will we have the opportunity down the line to be able to make ssre that we can safely drill for oil off our continental shelf so that we can continue to energize this nation, especially when the so many louisiana jobs are incumbent upon the ability to be able to drill domestically here in the united states. let's go to joseph and pennsylvania. >> hello, sir. i am all -- i am all the way up

here in pennsylvania and i am pretty near route 15 that runs all the way down to you. i just want you to know that we i do not think that bp can be trusted at all, even with this whole situation, because everything they're trying to do is to get something hooked up so they can harvest this oil to a ship instead of tapping its -- tapping it. when they tried to put that first monstrosity on top of it, it was telling you itself, or forming ice crystals that it is easier to freeze this thing than it is to for whenever they are doing. they could have frozen it with whatever refrigerant that they could get down there with the robot.

they could have president and capped it and they keep going the other way -- they could have frozen it and capped it and they keep going the other way. it is plumbing 101. i am sure that the navy and coast guard could come in and do this. the have to be able to because they have all the equipment in the world. >> i thank you for the phone call. i think a lot of us down here are upset with the response. we saw almost no response in the aftermath of katrina. aftermath about the of katrina is that we could take the space second airborne a week to drop them into any hellhole in this world and within 48 hours, we will have a landing

strip, hospital, medical supplies. we will have a great military set up to be able to come in and take care of any type of rescue operation. in the aftermath of katrina, we cannot figure it out. we feel almost deja vu all over again in louisiana. we saw this oil spewing out of this deep water horizon whole. we saw what was happening. we understood very quickly about how fragile this was. we bad, we pleaded. -- we bad, we pleaded to be able to come in and protect our shores. the role of government is to protect its citizens. not to protect its citizens from enemy abroad, but anything that will come -- that will affect us in -- in terms of of environmental standpoint.

to allow a corporation to be able to set the agenda on how we are going to stop this oil from coming up against louisiana, mississippi, florida, texas, is unconscionable. in our humble opinion, let bp handle the oil spill. try to stop this below the surface. let the u.s. military come in and protect the louisiana coast line, especially when you are talking about the deepwater horizon that is 50 miles off our coast. we think the response has been slow and we think it is in the wrong hands. do not let a private corporation dictate on when and how this oil will be stopped when it gets into louisiana. it is too late now. we have an opportunity to build -- it was his idea.

it is 80 miles long. it can protect us from this oil. this oil was on the service, it might be a little bit easier to use skimmers. but now, because of dispersants, this oil has plunged below the surface of the golf. -- of the gulf. now there is conjecture on bp's part. there are scientists that have gone below the surface of the gulf. we cannot fight the enemy because we cannot see this enemy until it is too late. the enemy is not going under our oil booms that are supposed to protect the fragile louisiana coastline. weeks later, this has been approved by the united states coast guard and the united states army corps of engineers, the only approved for a couple of miles.

we need 80 miles of this to fill in the 40 gaps along our barrier islands that were created by oil exploration. 25,000 miles of pipeline go for the state of louisiana to our 18 refineries up and down the mississippi river that manufacture petrochemicals and oil for the rest of this country. all we wanted to do was to fill in those gaps that we had an opportunity to be able to save our fragile coastline, to be able to say airwave -- save our way of life. right now, the corps of engineers and the united states coast guard has given us permission to do one of those passes at the expense of bp. now we must find the money in the louisiana treasury to be able to build the rest of the 80 mile san burn. literally, right now, for almost four weeks, 3-for contractors that are involved in pipeline

dredging have been in the city of new orleans. there is 9-16 units on standby right now, directional dredges that can go out and stop but -- start the process of filling in these burns that we can protect our estuaries, our way of life. yet, government red tape and acquiescing to bp and their wishes has slow this process down. america, i am telling you that on behalf of the citizens of louisiana, we cannot wait. we cannot hesitate one more moment. we need to build this so we can protect our wildlife, are estuaries, and our way of life. special with the advent of hurricane season -- especially with the advent of hurricane season. perrin bended be hoping and praying -- we are on bended knee and hoping and praying.

beccuse of this poisonous dispersant that is sprayed on our gulf waters. to dauphin island, alabama, elisabeth -- excuse me. it is roxanne. welcome. i'd understand there right now, you guys are on alert because the oil may be heading your way. >> it is here. it is here now. >> sad. >> we're from the new orleans area and we came over here to vacation and we took a walk this morning and we saw part balls coming in all on the coast line right in dolphin islands.

we tried to talk to the police and get some action and hours have gone by and they are out there looking at it, but nobody is doing anything to clean it up. >> bp is more worried about the photo opportunity. if you are living along the rest of the gulf coast, they will do the same. they will bring an armada of people out to look like they are doing their job. at the end of the day, it is about a hurry up and wait. that is a sad thing, roxanne. down along the golden, in emerald coast of florida and the mississippi gulf coast. you are going to start dealing with what we are dealing with. no disrespect to the people who live on the rest of the gulf coast. once this oil gets into our

estuaries, the ability to claim this of will be almost impossible. mr. president, here are pleased. we need to do did down here and get on in their boat and get into our wetlands. see what this oil inundation is doing to our wetlands. this is the nesting season. to the mightyng 690. a true hero, not next. -- a true hero coming up next. ♪

ofif it wasn't for the help the federal government, people like you, who stepped up and came down on your own dime to new orleans to help rebuild or gave of yourself in terms of money out of your bank accounts, pushing your representatives to make sure that the people of louisiana could come back from the biggest man-made disaster in history of this country, let me say this. we know now from studies that the corps of engineers in a lot of cases -- and we are at fault here. we elected representatives here in louisiana that allow the corps of engineers to cut corners on how they built the levee systems. we know now that substandard material was used.

when the hurricane came in, water over my roof. everything that my family had worked for for decades was gone. it was because the storm came in, the storm left, the storm surge itself -- because of the erosion of our levee system, are barrier islands, because of the thames to control the navigation of the mississippi river -- because of the attempts to control and navigation of the mississippi river. new orleans became basically a bold that -- a bowl that filled up with water very quickly. a lot of us who have come back,

we feel like we have scratched our way back on this five years after katrina. we want to get the message out that this is not a natural disaster. it was a man-made disaster. it was because the levees failed. other than that, we would have been covered. houses within a couple of weeks. now we are looking at this scenario repeating itself. the federal government not reacting to the situation quick enough. who is in charge? he was not is in charge? at the end of the day, there should be a lesson learned from what happened after 9/11 and what happened after katrina. we cannot leave this in the hands of bureaucrats. we cannot leave this in the hands of private corporations. we're trying to save a way of life, the people of the state of louisiana and across the nation. we cannot leave this to a corp.

ibp to call the shots. our federal government should have been here immediately to start the process. that is why louisiana -- that is why we are scared. it is deja vu all over again. ♪ while compaq. -- welcome back. for those of you watching around the nation on c-span, i do not have to introduce you to our next guest. he is a true louisiana hero. a hero after katrina and has proved to be a hero in trying to save the very existence of his parish. he joins us here on the 9690 and across the nation on c-span. how are you? >> i am doing good. we are on our way over to this

barrier island meeting that the administration is putting on to decide whether they are going to -- >> tell the folks around the nation your proposal for trying to stop this oil with about a 80 mile land burns form -- filling in about 40 passes along the coastline and your frustration on the inability for the corps of engineers and the united states coast guard to make a quick decision. we're finding out that we will only be able to do a small portion to begin with. >> my frustration is growing as the head across the river and their read the speakers. it appears to me that this is a stacked deck against this from the beginning. no one that has been on our team putting this together on the panel. i am likely to go to jail before this hearing is over. this is absolutely ridiculous.

the present requested a roundtable discussion to discuss the pros and cons. this does not look like a round table discussion. this looks like a dog and pony show and it turns out that way, i will be on the telephone deceiving to the white house -- i will be on the telephone this evening to the white house. before i go one anderson cooper, i will give him the opportunity to do the right thing. demand that bp paid for all of these barrier islands to give us a chance of saving the marsh. >> you came up with the concept as you requested and got in a dress that was going to begin to dredge long before this oil leaked happen to try to protect yourself from the next storm surge. >> absolutely. we had three phases of barrier islands that we had planned to build to protect our parish and

coastal louisiana. this was the third phase. a lot more expensive. we modified it to get the most bang for our buck. had we started this when we first passed, we would have had this complete and a lot of the areas where you saw the impact, the marshes, would not have happened. we would not have lost those marshes and the wild black but we're losing in greaa numbers now. >> billy, here with us here on the mighty 690. explain to them how long ago he went to the coast guard, when to bp, went to the corps of engineers with this concept and what has been holed up to be able to build these barrier islands back. >> we have heard everything from

the cannot do it in the timeframe that you say to able have environmental impact. it is too expensive. all the excuses. that is all we have been hearing. show me a better plan. the bones are not working. we are killing ourselves sterling band-aids on these marshes -- the blooms are not working. we are killing ourselves throwing band-aids on these marshes. >> billy, when you look at the plan, this is something that has already been vetted by the corps of engineers. why the holdup? >> it is easy to point defeat -- a finger and say it is the fault of bp or tte coast guard. i cannot even understand, especially since the last

attempt failed, that bp has not stepped up to the plate and said we are going to do the right thing. it cannot be cleaned up off of the marsh. the marsh -- it has been over two weeks. they have had 40 crews out there to clean it up and it is still not clean debt. just like we have said from the beginning, it is impossible to clean this stuff up from the marsh. it is destroying the marsh. i will predict that if we do not form this barrier island, we will see more land lost from this oil and then katrina and ike combined. we have already lost 3,000 acres. the coast guard said 24 acres and bp said 30. they got their numbers together and they huddled. we would not physically and measured it. it is 3,000 acres of land lost already. what is it going to take for somebody to quit playing around?

>> for those under watching on c-span, you have been al so many times into the louisiana wetlands with the governor and others. for those that have never been to louisiana wetlands or one of our estuaries, explain what it would normally be like this time of year and what you have seen, heard, and felt as you have gone through. >> usually, thousands of people out there fishing. it also feeds the whole gulf of mexico were life begins. all these small fish and critters start the life cycle here in the marshlands of louisiana. everywhere this oil has touched, it is dead. the plants are dying. all the fish and wildlife are dead. we have lost hundreds of birds.

the pelican just got off the endangered species list. add that when this is over, it will be back on it. we have lost hundreds of pelicans. what is it going to take for someone to step up to the plate and do absolutely everything physically possible to keep this oil from destroying our way of life? it is unthinkable. >> billy, when you start talking about the problems we're dealing with. i think you have been very articulate and expressing that we are truly fighting an enemy that we cannot see because of this person's that have been sprayed in the gulf of mexico. normally, the booms would be able to catch this oil before it reaches are estuaries. in this case, because of the corrective 9500, a lot of this well is coming under the booms

and it does not stop until it hits land. that is one of the reasons why we need this build now. >> absolutely. bp said it would not come to shore. we found out that was not true. for the president of bp yesterday to visit and say he does not believe that -- we would like to take camp -- he knows. the scientists have identified a thousands of miles of oil under the surface. for him to say it doesn't exist is denial and he is an embarrassment. >> i do not believe a word out of his mouth. all they are doing is c-y-a at

this point. talk a little bit about your conversation with president obama and the response to the biggest ecological disaster in history of this country. >> this meeting today is because offthe meeting. i think the president for that. unfortunately, the panel and looking and does not represent the people. hopefully, we will get a chance to make, and this meeting. the paddle was handpicked. -- the panel was handpicked. the will see the argument and the outcome. anything less is unacceptable. we will wage war in a level that we have to protect the wetlands. we will not sit by and watch this oil pick us apart piece by piece. that is what is happening as we speak.

>> the specifically do not you like -- don't you like on this panel? >> first off, it was supposed to be a round table discussion where we could present their case. that was told to me in the meeting with the president. i got an invitation as an observer. we will see what happens. i will give him the benefit of the doubt. it is shaping up to be a dog and pony show and if it is, god help them. we need truth, honesty, transparency. we do not need cover-up and

smoke and mirrors to make something appear likely ttok everybody's opinion. we're going to go in there with our guns loaded and we will see what happens. the truth needs to be told. the whole truth. >> billy, on the way out, to those who are watching to was around the country on c-span, explain to them what is happening to our great state. >> we are letting bp destroy our way of life and nobody is standing up and demanding that they do everything physically possible. we have got equipment like kevin costner's machine. the time frame and getting them into the water -- and we are going out and buying this stuff. they ought to be doing that. it is unacceptable. the whole system is broken. somebody needs to take charge

that has the passion to save these wetlands. they need to quit playing games of their future. >> thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. to the foul lines we go. -- to the telephone lines we go. to the state of massachusetts. >> how are you? i agree fully with billy brought off the bat, just a you know, massachusetts is definitely behind new orleans. you guys have been through hell. i was an engineer in the army. i agree that the engineering was sub work. the money was not spend the way it should have ben. this is all due to money.

the dispersants, that is money. there is no doubt about that. they use that because they had some and because it was saving money. somebody needs to step off. that person needs to be our president. i voted for him. i think we should not -- he should not stand up and say, i can sign an executive order. bp is out of here. >> i would agree. the federal government needs to take control. we got involved with deep water drilling and we were sold a bill of goods. how could neutral in deep water if you do not have a contingency plan in case something goes wrong? -- how can you drill in deep water? the people of the united states of america were not told the truth about the ability to drill safely in deep water.

at this point, the federal government needs to take control of this response. they should have from day one. we should have learned a lesson from katrina and 9/11. this is an assault on our way of life. when you start talking about what louisiana means to this country in terms of energizing it, we are tied into the oil companies, tied into oil exploration. we want to do it safely. savannah, ga., bill. welcome. >> how are you doing? are you getting any feedback? i have a question about the 9500. according to the coast guard, i read an article where one of their -- they were sprang to correct -- they were sprang to

correct this. -- spraying two coo rrectives. >> i was not aware of that. 9500 is made by exxon, was originally made by exxon. it is now -- there is a dispersant which is 100% effective on our south louisiana crude and not as toxic as 9500. it is incredulous to all of us down here on why the more toxic 9500 was used.

lisa jackson was in new orleans native and head of the epa asking bp to stand down on the amount of 9500 they were using. this might have made sense if they were having the heavier type crude. not latest south louisiana sweet crude. . .

>> you are attuned to a.m. 690, wist. >> hey, new orleans, want to unclog your life? this is about portable solutions. gomini comes to you. >> when she gets here, we will talk. [radio commercial]

>> to those of you watching on c-span, one thing we have been fighting for in south louisiana is our fair share of ocs representation and that is in jeopardy because of the possibility that we may abandon deepwater drilling. any of us who live in louisiana are on pins and needles because when you look at shallow water,

we are told that in many cases there are not a lot of oil reserves left in shallow water. the majority of the oil reserves that are on tap to in the gulf of mexico right now are in deep water, they say. louisiana, in many cases, has been asking for our fair share of offshore oil revenue. this is specifically ocs revenue. we are set to get 1/4 of offshore oil revenue derived from the outer continental shelf. when you talk about where louisiana is -- we get more money to the united states treasury in terms of money derived from the extraction of minerals than any other state in the union. right now, when you talk about louisiana, we are getting a pittance of money that is coming in from oil exploration in terms

of royalties. states that are landlocked in many cases, those of you live in wyoming, new mexico, utah, colorado, california, montana, you guys derive more money from the extraction of minerals and oil and gas on federal lands. you get 50% immediately into your state treasuries. for instance, in 2007, wyoming got $925 million. new mexico got $552 million. you took a $135 million. colorado got $132 million. california got $61 million. montana got over $50 million. we have more pipelines than any state in the union. with the amount of refineries we have up and down the mississippi river, we only got $24 million.

minerals and royalties from the drilling on federal lands. this is of the louisiana coast. senator mary landrieu has pushed the federal government to give us 40% of those revenues now. the key going forward is in louisiana, what we have done, as soon as there was an opportunity for us to be able to get our portion of offshore revenues, immediately we dedicated coast to coast a restoration, to the restoration of the barrier islands and the wetlands. this was immediately after katrina. any money derived from minerals and royalties from the federal government on the drilling of a federal lands, offshore, immediately goes into rebuilding

what has been lost because of salt water intrusion and the offshore drilling, the pipelines that have been cut for our marshes and wetlands and barrier islands and of course, the army corps of engineers is trying to harness the mississippi river in terms of navigation that would stop nutrients that each spring would feed the wetlands so they can be viable again. we put our money where our mouth is. any money derived from offshore royalties from drilling in federal waters originally would go into rebuilding our wetlands and the barrier islands. right now, we get a pittance and in many cases we have to share 1/4 of 37.5% with other states. that does not kick in until 2017. louisiana and the rest of the

gulf coast cannot wait that long. we need those dollars now. unfortunately, it is in limbo. we won't know if we're going to drill off the continental shelf because we don't knoo how safe it is. hour number 2 of inside new orleans. you can listen live at wistradio.com and we want to welcome those who are watching live on c-span. you're getting a taste of what we are feeling in south louisiana. joining us now on the program is a coastal scientist from the environmental defense fund, someone who has louisiana ties. your sister lives here, angelina

friedman is a coastal sciences for the environmental defense fund. welcome. thank you for being with us. you have had the opportunity to go out into our estuaries and wetlands along the shoreline as a. coastal for those that are watching us on cable and satellite networks on c-span and those listening, and around the country and around the world, describe for the country and for the world what you have seen and how this oil has inundated our louisiana wetlands. >> last weekend, i went out to the grand isle area. the oil had reached the shore already. it was in thick pools in the sand and seeping into the substrate. there were animals that were affected. it was on the rocks and in the water and also i went out a few

times this week down to the delta. i saw the wetlands there. the oil had come in. the oil was pulled around the wetlands and i had seen some oil off the coast and off the short. >> as a coastal scientist, when you see the inundation of oil along the wetlands, what is your first thought? >>çó oil in the wetlands is nevr good. it can cause chemical and physical damage to the wetlands themselves. some of them have a certain amount of resilience to them. now that that well has not been tapped and the spill continues, there is potential multiple events. the impact is not really known. >> obviously, you have been involved in looking at wetlands.

you have seen the inundation of oil. talk about this from the habitat for many of our migrating birds. this is the migrating season and birds are coming in from all over the world on the flyway coming in from louisiana before they head to south america. they stopped here and we have nesting birds. when you talk about the wetlands in terms of the fisheries and the young fish from trenton to oysters, those that are involved in our ecosystem, this is the breeding ground for many of our fisheries. explain to the audience listening to was around the world and watching us on c-span the potential impact on wildlife and fisheries in the louisiana. >> this is the nursery ground for the fishing of the united states. having that oil and the wetlands is very detrimental to

them. it is nesting season and you see the pelicans and the shore birds weren't much of the oil reaches the shore. those effects are sub-lethal effects, the toxicity of the oil and the disbursement can have long range of facts that we don't know yet. >> that is was scary for many of us. there is an unknown. 9500 has been sprayed in large amounts of the gulf of mexico. we are being told that many pieces break up into small droplets and those droplets are sub-surface in many cases. we are being told by some cent -- scientists that we have large oil plums and bp is denying that. these are under the surface of the water that we cannot say. this could literally be detrimental to our wildlife and fisheries all the way up and down the food chain. this is especially when you talk

about the possibility of this on the bottom of the gulf. for those who don't understand how detrimental this can become the talk about how this affects the food chain from plankton all the way up. >> some of the smaller organisms are affected first but that goes up the food chain. the bigger animals eat the smaller animals and the ones on the ocean floor are affected. the larger species and the ocean species will not reproduce as often. there will be a 10% kill off of them and that will be a big affect. >> we saw in alaska after the exxon valdez spill, the parent did not come back. they are still trying today to make sure --the heron did not come back. we have species in louisiana that have just been discovered or have longevity in this part of the world that are now on the brink of possible exttnction. at the very least, we can see

those species affected for maybe the next 10 or so years. for the audience that may be fine this unbelievable, explain to them how this affects our fisheries long-term. this is really an unknown? >> it is, it is a situation of when the weld gets capped but also the disbursement, the sublethal effects. the effect on oysters will reduce their reproduction. something like that can cause long-term the facts. >> angelina friedman is a coastal scientist with the coastal defense fund and also went to louisiana state univ.. >> i went to lsu and just graduated with my ph.d. last week? everything is running together. >> you have been out on many

ships. how many times have you been out to the wetlands itself? >> since the oil spill? probably four or five times. >> what are you hearing from the fishermen out there? what are they telling you on how this is affecting their livelihood? >> that is a tough time for them. people are cancelling their trips. that could be long term, to. >> in terms of rebuilding the wetlands, we know it is possible down the line to build them back but it will be difficult and arduous. we are told that once oil reaches rose cane that it could be between five and seven days when that starts to deteriorate.

that is the plant life that holds together and once that starts to die off then that has the possibility of turning into open water. talk about that process because we have seen that over the life of our wetlands over the last 50 years to rear -- deteriorating at the lack of one football field per our. >> the wetlands are already very stressed at the mouth of the mississippi. this is something on top of a lot of land loss and intrusion that we have and louisiana. >> is there something scientifically that is a remedy? there has been talk about the possibility of going in there with airboats and cleaning up the oil once it hits the louisiana wetlands. we are also being told in some cases that the wetlands are so fragile that they will not be able to stand up to man going

out there and doing a clean-up operation. they are so fragile and delicate. >> they are and there has been research done on some of the cleanup. cleanup is important but cleaning up on sand is easier. >> that is one of the reasons why in louisiana we have been begging for the opportunity to build a sand perm to fill in the 40 passes that were cut from all expiration and build the sand burn from stopping this from inundating our wetlands. you say it is easier to clean the oil when it comes up on shore rather than once it gets into the wetlands. some scientists say that is almost impossible. >> it is easier to clean it off the santa. >> as far -- is easier to clean it off the sand.

>> has there ever been a case where we have seen the inundation of an estuary or wetlands like this and if so, how long does it take after the cleanup for wildlife and those in the fisheries to come back? >> it all depends on the type of oil and how long the invasion is. we have had some oil spills in louisiana. sometimes they can rebound more rapidly but it could take a long time. in alaska, it has taken blogger. >> what would you like to tell the rest of the nation that is watching us on cspan right now as a scientist what you have seen? can you alert them of where we are going forward in terms of trying to clean this up but protecting our wetlands and the wildlife that is spawning and living there? >> this is an amazing ecosystem. we must restore it and restore

the natural system and make it more resilient. >> why is it important? we have been told that this is the estuary for the entire gulf. many species are often the wetlands of louisiana and some of the great fishing and some of the great fisheries we see in the gulf itself, the process seems to start of the louisiana wetlands. >> exactly. it is important for the entire nation's fishing production and also for the animals. flyways from birds from all over it is important. >> thank you for being with us. we appreciate very much. from the environmental defense fund, we take a break and when we come back we will go to the phone lines. for those of us watching and

listening, you can call in. i am here until 3:00 this afternoon. [radio commercial] >> watching us live on c-span around the country -- i want to make a plea to all of you.

number one, please, your congressman, your senators, let them know how important it is to build the sand burned to protect the louisiana coastline and after we get this opportunity down the line -- the way it looks now, we are hoping that the latest scenario being put out there by bp will somehow stop this league. we are fighting this war on two fronts. we would hope that bp would concentrate on stopping public and the federal government would take over for the opportunity to stop the inundation of the oil on the coastline but now threatening the alabama, mississippi, and florida coastline. this is because of the currents in the gulf. we can see this in mexico. we can literally see this is the gas into the loop current that this "could spread to key west and up the eastern seaboard. we beg you to go and reach out

to your representatives in congress and tell them immediately, we need the money necessary. we can't wait on bp. we cannot wait on studies. this sand burn has been studied and approved before this oil spill. we need to do this now. we are fighting a battle against an enemy that is below the surface. the only way to catch that is to be able to build this sam's burn and catch the oil as it hits the sandy beaches. but it would be easier than when it attaches to the plants. the second thing i would implore you to do is to come to new orleans. [no audio]

people thought that the louisiana seafood was tainted. the department of wildlife and fisheries has been proactive and closing off areas around the state before there is any oil inundating those areas of those fisherres. we have been very proactive to make sure that louisiana seafood is safe. many people believe you can see and smell the oil in new orleans. you cannot. [no audio]

>> we lost our signal live from new orleans. we are looking at a live picture being sent by a bp, seeing the oil plan come out. it was written that the obama administration is taking steps to distance itself from the pay periods attorney general are calder has been sent to the gulf coast. he is meeting with local prosecutors. the environmental calamity might become subject of a criminal investigation we will continue to watch that scene from the gulf of mexico. [no audio] [no audio]

>> we are continuing to watch this bp feed on the oil spill there. we lost our signal to the radio show "side new orleans." somethinge1 else happened todayn the oil issue. president obama held his first meeting with the two chairmans he appointed to investigate the oil spill. they include bob graham, a former florida governor and lyn wiley. after that meeting, he talked to

reporters in the rose garden. >> i just met with these two gentlemen. they will lead the national commission on the bp oil spill in the gulf. it is now the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in our history. their job along with the other members of the commission will be to thoroughly examine this bill and its causes so that we never faced this catastrophe again. at the same time, we continue our efforts on all fronts to contain the damage from this disaster and extend to the people of the gulf the help they need to confront this ordeal.

we have already mounted the largest cleanup effort in the nation's history. we continue to monitor minute to minute the efforts to halt or capture the flow of oil from the bp oil well. until it is stopped, we will multiplied our efforts to meet the growing threat and address the widespread and unbelievably painful losses experienced by the people along the gulf coast. what is being threatened and lost is not just a source of income but a way of life, not just fishable waters but a national treasure. there are now more than 20,000 men and women in the region working round-the-clock to on the cleanup. we have authorized more than 17,000 national guard members to respond across four states. more than 1700 vessels are currently helping in the response and will ensure that any and all responsible means of

containing this league are pursued as we await the completion of the two relief wells. i have also directed homeland security secretary janet the polish town and polishthad allen to triple the manpower in those places where oil has come ashore oars with or treat -- or is within 24 hours of impact. the economic response continues as well. we have ordered bp to pay economic injury claims and we will make sure they deliver. the small business administration has helped to approve loans to small businesses and allow reef -- deferrals of loan payments. we have station the doctors and scientists across the region to look out for help and monitor l fax felt by cleanup workers and residents. we were absolutely continue to hold peepee and that may or other responsible parties accountable for financial losses in the region. our response below does not end there. we have an obligation to

investigate what went wrong and to determine what reforms are needed so that we never have to experience a crisis like this again. it fell laws on our books are insufficient, the loss must change. it oversight was an adequate, oversight has to be reformed. if our laws were broken leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledge is that we will bring those responsible to justice on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe and the people of the gulf region. when interior secretary ken salazar took office, he founded agency that had been plagued by corruption for years. it was corruption that was underscored by the recent inspector general's report that uncovered all the activity that took place. he immediately took steps to clean up that corruption but this oil spill has made clear that more reforms are needed.

for years, there has been a too cozy relationship between oil companies and agencies that regulate them. we decided to separate the people hat permit offshore leases and collect revenues and to regulate the safety of drilling. in addition, we have placed a six-month moratorium on drilling new deepwater oil and gas wells on the outer continental shelf. now that a 30-day safety and environmental review was complete, we are making a series of changes. the review recommended aggressive new operating standards and requirements forr offshore energy companies which we will put in place. i have also called on congress to pass a bill to provide critical resources to respond to this bill and better prepare us for any spills in the future. all that has to do with dealing with the crisis at hand is critical that we take a comprehensive look at how the oil and gas industry operates and how our government oversees those operations.

that is why i signed an executive order establishing this national commission and i am pleased that bob grant and bill riley had agreed to be their coat chair persons. bob grant represented florida in the senate for almost two decades. he earned a good reputation as a champion of the informant, leading the most extensive environmental protection in the state history. bill is chairman of the world wildlife fund. he is also deeply knowledgeable to the oil and gas industry. he was the epa administrator during the first bush administration serving during the exxon valdez disaster. i cannot think of two people who will bring greater experience or judgment to this task. i personally want to thank both of them for taking on this arduous assignment and demonstrated a great sense of duty to this country. very soon, i will appoint five

other distinguished americans to join them. they will work alongside other ongoing reviews including an independent examination by the national academy of engineers. i have authorized the commission to hold public hearings and request information from government, not-for-profit organizations, and exports of oil and gas industry at home and abroad as well as from relevant companies. that includes bp, trans ocean, halliburton, and others. in doing this work, they have my full support to follow the facts wherever they may lead. they will have no fear or favor. i'm directing them to report back in six months with options on how we can prevent and mitigate the impact of any future oil spill that results from offshore drilling. as a result of this disaster, lives have been lost. businesses have been decimated, communities that had known great hardship already now face the

specter of sudden and painful economic dislocation. the untold damage is being done to the environment. this is damage that could last for decades. we owe all those who have been armed as well as future generations a full and vigorous accounting of the events that led to what has now become the worst oil spill in u.s. history. only then can we be assured that deepwater drilling can take place safely. only then can we accept for the development of these resources as we transition to a clean energy economy. only then can we be confident we have done what is necessary to prevent history from repeating thank you very much, everybody. >> this is live video being sent by bp from the gulf of mexico.

we lost our signal from the radio show we are recording the program and will bring it to you later in our schedule. the associated press reports that the coast guard is replacing the admiral coordinator. the rear admiral will return to duty to focus on preparations. her replacement is rare admiral james watson. from this morning, the former state department counselor and north korea policy coordinator and is now vice chair of the albright group is talking about north korea and their attack on the south korean war ship. noon eastern. "washington journal" continues. host: wendy sherman served as the state department counselor, served under the clinton administration for north korea appeared let's begin -- north korea.

begin with theanctns by south korea. will it work? guest: my guess is it ll make everybody take a step and haws. we will certainly not go forward the six-party talks at this point. everyone is very concerned about we knowear weapons at korea undoubtably has. think what we need a solidarity. that theo make sure forward council moves with a condemnation of what done with a loss of 46 foul lives on the freighter, a naval ship in south korea, which was sunky the koreans. investigational y the south koreans is pretty definitive. the russians are n in seoul loing at that material, tha investigation, to be able to hope, in the, i criticatore very process, also looking at the investigation to make their own judgments.

host: will they joined the investigation? board?y on guest: i think ultimately china on board. be theddr like to country out. once russia comes on board it be more difficult for chinese. wen jiabao, the seroul and said ot protect a country anctor responsible for such a thing. they gave themselves a path toward affirming the investigation south korea has led. think we needo be a little until china gets believe that the end facts are so firm that it willr to d for china n to, in fact, condemned what nortkorea has done. host: one theory is kim jong-il supported the attack and use it to prop up his son. elaborate? guest: i think therere several theories.

he knows after the stroke had, that his timis not infinite on this earth, which is of norththe people korea, so he is trying to groom year-old son who has virt >> we are going back live to the radio show in new orleans thunderstorms in the d.c. area cut off our signal. [radio commercial]

>> why don't you grab that microphone up there and a set of headphones? there should be a second set right there. there should be a second set. got it? [radio commercial]

>> for our viewers across the nation on c-span, my next guests are here. my relationship with todd goes back a few years. in the aftermath of katrina, we were trying to look for options to rebuild our wetlands and rebuild our barrier islands. todd introduced me to don samples. he introduced us to a grass called vetero-grass. this is a resilience trend of marsh grass used in third world countries that can iterally be used in louisiana to try to fight this oil intrusion. over the next few minutes, we will talk about veteio-grass and its uses and how we can

rebuild the wetlands and rebuild the islands. we will also talk a little bit about how our wildlife is being affected, the birds, the fish, etc, by the intrusion of oil on our louisiana coastline. todd has come up with a wet site called redgebabydredge.com. you can go there and check out what they have to offer. we are trying to get the message out as to why it is important to start the dredging process to protect our fragile estuaries. we have an answer on how we can keep those barrier islands in place but more importantly, how we can rebuild the wetlands because of the inundation of hydro chemicals. this vetero-grass could be the

answer. [radio commercial] >> welcome back you can listen live on wist raio .com. we are joined by a wetlands economist and is on the board of the new orleans audubon society. also tim kaul, an environmental developer.

tom, welcome and thank you for coming back. you were with me a couple of weeks ago. i wanted to introduce you guys to the west of the country because your expertise is not just in march grasp but the marshlands and no little bit about what is happening with the wildlife being affected in south louisiana. todd and jim welcomed. >> dredgedbabydredge.com. >> we have been talking about the building of the barrier islands, the sand burns. you guys have been all over this. let's talk a little bit about why it is important to build this sand barrier to protect the

very, very fragile louisiana estuaries and wetlands. >> the oil will be so much easier to get off a san substrate rather than have it inundate the marsh grasses. once that oil is adhered to by the marsh grass, it will literally suffocate the entire plant and the plant will be able to breed. we breathe and oxygen. plants out there are breathing in co2. that we are breeding out. the use that to make good. if the oil is coated over the root stock and stems and leaves, they cannot taken the co2 gases and they literally starve to death. >> tim, we had a conversation last week on why it is important to build this san the burn. one thing that the corps of engineers was concerned with and the coast guard was concerned with was that the sediment that

could be used to build these sand burns and continuous chain of islands that would protect the coast, that some of these oil could be contaminated with oil. talk about how we can overcome this and why are their products out there now that can be used to be able to mixed with the spoil that would help not compound the problem of building a land burn that could be toxic because of the oil that may be settled on the bottom of the gulf right now? >> want to recover the lab and you pump in the sediment, you will pump from the bottom of the gulf of mexico. there is a tremendous amount of oil down there now with hydrocarbons. you would have to do a two-step process three you have to treat it with microorganisms, oil- eating microorganisms. they will keep it and work for

about 21 days. they will get rid of the hydrocarbons. you want to hedge your bet because you need to plant vegetation on this land that you recover. >> when we have high tide and god forbid a hurricane, those lands that we are building must stay in place? >> exactly, you need to put vegetation in with a good root system. you get rid of the hydrocarbons through the microorganisms, you're hedging your bets. it takes 21 days for them to eat and turn it into enzyme's. >> we can take the spoil from the sediment on the bottom of the gulf to go into these islands and mix it with microorganisms and the microorganisms and will start the process of eating the hydrocarbons which will make the sand burn non-toxic? >> more suitable for plants to grow. >> the company in the state of alabama manufactures these

microorganisms. talk about that. >> i met with a company here. they are producing these microorganisms and they harvested these markets or organisms from the exxon valdez. these companies have been in business for quite some time. they told me that they can inject it into the soil for the sediment. you can treated at is is coming through and it will penetrate approximately 24 inches. it will work for 21 days. you can also injected up to 20 feet under where you can get a massive amount of the microorganisms eating a hydrocarbons. after 21 days when the soil is suitable, you come back and plants. planting this vetero-grass, you put it where you want.

the plants will interlock each other with a root system. i brought a picture of a healthy root system. this is vetero-grass. this plant is approximately tent-years old. is a fibrous root system. it is about 14-15 feet in depth. >> this route system grows horizontally? it will not harm any of the natural plants and our wetlands? -- in our wetlands? >> correct. it grows straight down. it will not be an invasive species of plants. it is being used in over 100 countries right now. >> that's what amazed me about this plant. it is being used by poor world countries in many cases to make sure that the banks of the river stay in place. talk about the uses in other countries. we will then get into why this would work with the it oil

intrusion on our coastline. >> it is planted where ever you have coastal erosion and trouble keeping the soil together. it is being used in the what the right now. the use it all over africa. it is used in central louisiana but not in south louisiana. once this plant is planted, it grows very rapidly, within three months. you would not be able to pull out of the ground. the root system grows six or 7 feet in three months. it will maintain itself and it is very resilient breed it stands up very well against flooding, against drought, it can go for long periods of time in water. it can go without water. you can burn it and it will grow back. it takes the nitrates and phosphates out of the soil and the water. it takes the heavy metals out of the water. >> in this case, with our

wetlands being inundated by heavy crude, this would be ideal not to be able to just plant on the sand burns we want to build but as we build back our wetlands, this would be the perfect plant species to put into the wetlands. it would allow us to be able to take in those hydrocarbons and almost clean the area? >> we are not sure exactly how much of the hydrocarbons it would exactly clean. that is in on number did we know it can withstand some. we would like to treat the settlement before planting it to hedge our bets and make sure that we are not throwing it into an atmosphere that would be undesirable for it. it can take the currents coming in and traps the settlement in these areas here. as it is buried, it grows taller. as the settlement covers it up, it will not be smothered them of the main thing is that when you start talking about vetero-

grass is its resiliency and ability to be able to hold land in place no matter what the toxicity of the area is? >> without a doubt. is one of the most results and plans i have ever seen. i have done studies with it for five years noww todd and i bett todd teach is a wonderful course in a local college on wetlands and everything which is unbelievable. todd and i met and we started working together a bit on this. >> talk about don samples and how you became familiar with vetero-grass. i want to show the audience what this looks like. it looks very similar to the rose cane out in the wetlands. >> it gets mistaken for, progress which is in vesa. this is not in basis. >> it is very benign? >> yes. >> i met don samples about 10

years ago. he started a nonprofit in 1981 called earth beautiful foundation. way back when, he started to become active about the wetlands and he knew we were losing our coastline at an alarming rate. today we are losing about 1 acre every 38 minutes or so. don samples stumbled onto this vetero-grass and researched it and looked at the literature and he found out that this could be a short-term answer. we don't have enough time to open up the mississippi river and allow the natural system to comment. we have less than 10 years to build a plant and plant this grass to hold the float together. we need a fast-growing plants. after katrina, don samples was a champion of the vetero-grass to help build up the land lost in south louisiana. >> i understand you guys have

been in contact with the area president. he is aware of vetero-grass and its uses. the inundation of oil is another of its abilities, to hold a land mass that we would build a long bull louisiana coastline in place. >> i met with billy a couple of times in the first time we met on the vetero-grass was three months ago, two months before this it said it with bp. billy knew about it. he is on top of things. he is doing his homework. we were talking about putting the root system down to preserve the levees for the hurricanes. it had nothing to do with oil. as of last week, we met again. i have a whole new found respect for billy nungesser.

he was conducting five innings at one time and still fielding phone calls. this guy has got tenacity and he is a worker. people in louisiana should be proud of this guy. >> he is aware of the uses? >> yes, he knew more about it than i would have dreamt. he gave me brochures on it. we started talking about it. he asked what i knew about it and we went into detail. >> y vetero-grass and not some of the natural species there right now? >> beeause time is of essence. we need a fast-growing plants that will hold the float together. vetero-grass makes an excellent nurse plant. you planted and it will hold the soil together and you come in and plant the native vegetation. let that flourished after a few

months and if you want to get rid of the vetero-grass, score a few rounds of "round up" on it. >> why would you want to? we have to deal with hurricanes on a yearly basis. if we have a plant with a boisterous route system, why would you want to be able to pull that out? as the rosa cane and natural gas involved start to deteriorate because of the oil in addition, we are worried we will start to be lose land mass very quickly over -- like a last 40 years. >> this is a no-brainer. this will not compete with the

native vegetation. it is not in they supported it will stay put but the number one argument for planting this vetero-grass, according to the army corps of engineers and the fish and wildlife service's is the fact that it is not a native species. they are worried that it might become in base of and takeover like the water hyacinth which is an aquatic vegetation back rows and freshwater areas which has taken over many areas. the chinese callow tree has taken over several areas. >> but this is not entered the plant. >> exactly, that is why we are so frustrated. the science says it will not take over. it ill hold the soil and will not compete with the native vegetation. it will help the native vegetationnutr. anutria is a swamp rat and was

brought here 100 years ago from argentina and it has taken over. you will not be made of muskrat anymore in the march. they eat the native vegetation like it is going out of style but they will not eat the vetero-grass. >> talk about how this plant is used in third world countries. there are third world countries that use this to keep the backs of their rebars and protect -- to keep the banks of their rivers and why is this plan being used by here where it is needed, especially when we are going to spend $350 million, if we're going to build our wetlands back, we want a species that will hold the land in place? >> they have used the vetero- grass to stop sediment runoff which was killing reefs and shellfish.

within 10 years after planting it, the reefs are healthy again and shellfish are flourishing. it is just amazing. they use it in 100 countries right now. , literally. >> if they want to use microorganisms and we know there is vetero-grass out there that is resistant to hydrocarbons and will hold the islands in place, what is the holdup? the science is there. you guys are involved in this day in and day out. what the problem? >> it is all politics. what is the holdup? politics. we have good science on our side to say that we can start building land today. we can hand plant this today and build land and hold a seventh and trap the sediment and trap

the oil, more importantly, go to the beach and mechanically get this done very good science is there. what is the holdup? >> that is a good question that people are asking. the federal government is distracted. they did not take the initiative to realize what is going on and left it in the hands of a corporation. that has been the biggest damn fault for this scenario. tell us about dredgebabydredge, the website and how they can help save the louisiana coast line. >> my wife and i were driving next to plaqueman's parrish and we started seeing signs in both went though -- in the window for billy for president. we thought we needed a rallying cry and something we could sink our teeth into.

my wife nicole hit her like a pot to the stomach. she said dredge, babb, dredge. instead of a drill, they become a drill. we went, and created a website that you can go to -- dredgebabydredge.com and part of the proceeds you donate will go to the united commercial fishermen's association. part of the proceeds will buy bumper stickers. i thought we needed an image

that people can look at and feel an emotion about what is going on. not necessarily to read the data but register and emotion. i thought about the louisiana state bird which is the brown pelican which is being affected as we speak. louisiana is sometimes referred to as the pelican state so i imagined a mother to pelican -- a mother pelican having oil. we had an artist draw this from my id on the phone within a few hours. at the top it says "prevent the oil, protect the reserve." 1 drop of oil can kill a pelican, a sea turtle, and alligator eggs.

one drop will kill the eggs. once you convey that message without putting into much words, you can see here is the little baby. the oil spill is in the shape of louisiana. we are in the process now of creating another teacher that includes the rest of the gulf coast. . .

in.

louisiana to refuel. because of its position and because we have 40% of the nation's marshes, louisiana is so important for the health of thess migrating birds, not only seabirds, but also shorebirds. even bald eagles have been known to nest on the coastline of louisiana. i brought this poster because it shows you all the animals that could be affected by the oil spill. louisiana it catches about the nation's 30%. this is the brown shrimp. the oyster will be affected the moist -- the most because they are filter feeders. they are breathing in the oil right now.

we create 35% of the nation's oysters. you see the blue crabs and alligators. i don't know if you eat alligator meat. it is delicious. >> it tastes like chicken. >> look at this species of fish this is related to sardines and anchovies. in 2004, right before hurricane katrina, fishermen pulled in 400 million pounds. it topped anchorage, alaska as the number one seafood port. this was right before katrina. this was theenumber 1 fish port in north america, including

alaska. this fish right here is viewed -- is used for chicken feed. this is one reason why american chicken is so cheap because fisherman can put their neck down and catch hundreds of millions of tons of this fish. they go to northwestern arkansas and southwestern missouri and they pass on that low-cost to our because they are getting this fish. this can affect all of us. if this population grasses -- crashes, like the herring population did after exxon valdez, the price of chicken could skyrocket. >> the guys are on their way out. what would you tell people around the country about why it is so important to be able to build these sand berms? to be able to treat with

microorganisms this area and that we have a plant that will be resilience to hold these islands in place. >> everyone needs to realize this is not a state problem, this is a national problem. this is the largest disaster that you will see, probably in history, i will say, especially if the oil keeps pumping into late august or longer. we need to do something to secure the coastline of louisiana. we already lost our first line of protection against hurricanes. it will all go away. once one tropical storm comes then, we will lose acres and miles of marsh and we will have no line of protection. we will lose the estuaries.

you cannot even begin to say the problems we will have. >> i cannot wait until august. i cannot wait until august. dredge, dredge. we need to dredge now. >> dredgebabydredger.com is the website. it is imperative that we get out there and dredged the barrier islands. $350 million is a drop in the bucket when you talk about the type of destruction that could happen. this could affect our way of life and the city of new orleans. thank you for coming out. thank you for being with us.

you are listening to the mighty 690. i am with you until 3:00 this afternoon. i would like to thank those of us -- those of you watching us on c-span. we will be back after this. ♪

>> d want to move that shares a you can get comfortable? how are you today? >> good. i will go to the phone lines in a little while. i want you to spread the word on what is happening in louisiana restaurants. let people know how you are -- how the fisheries are going out

and making sure that every area in which seafood is harvested in louisiana is safe. [inaudible] i tried to tell everybody earlier, come to new orleans. we are not inundated with oil. we are not under water like after katrina. we're so tied to tourism and oil and gas, and obviously are seafood, it is almost three punches in one time we're getting right now. i want to tell people to come down and enjoy louisiana seafood and enjoy it new orleans and that louisiana seafood is safe.

literally, 40 or 50 miles from here people are fighting for their existence. we're trying to touch all bases for people around the country so they can get a feel for what is going on here. got you.

>> you were listening to new orleans' unknown boehner ram. welcome to those of you watching on c-span. those of you listening on a and 690, don't forget we podcast

each and every one of our shows. i want to thank our previous guests for joining us in our last segment. joining us now is the vice president of communications for the louisiana restaurant association. welcome. how are you? >> i am hanging in there. >> i wanted to bring you into the program because, as i have expressed, new orleans is open for business and, look, this is a tragedy happening on our coastline. hospital department, they are making sure that louisiana seafood is safe to eat. they are being proactive, closing areas that may have the slightest opportunity to have oil going to the areas, long before the oil comes in. they have been very proactive agencies. talk a little bit about louisiana seafood and about how

safe it is. tell us why people around the country should not be your eating louisiana seafood. >> this time around, with this kind of situation that louisiana faces, i am very impressed with the state boasts a response that governor jindal's response. they have been on it from day one and have communicated with all the affected partners. i am pretty impressed. that makes me, as a consumer, feel even more safe eating louisiana seafood and telling the rest of the world that it is safe to eat louisiana seafood. if you need to come here. >> we have an extensive testing process going on, with dhs, literally, there is nothing

harvested at of louisiana waters that has not been tested. it is safe to eat. >> yes, absolutely. they are testing as we speak. phey are testing hourly. this is a case where duplication of effort will pay off for our seafood products in the long run. >> when you see how louisiana seafood is harvested, is not affected by where the oil has of -- has inundated our coast. >> the west side of the mississippi river is largely open. we've had some opening and closing and that is changing on a daily basis, but the majority of our seafood production comes from west of the river. that is unaffected. that is good because we have quality louisiana seafood in the restaurants in the west -- in the frenchhquarter. >> that is good news for people processing louisiana seafood

around the world. we have had to overcome a public relations nightmare after katrina, people thinking we were under water and that louisiana seafood was tainted and the restaurants closed. one message we want to get out is that louisiana -- is that new orleans is not inundated with oil. we are open for business. we are still here. you can still come down and enjoy a great time in new orleans. because of what governor jindal has done and what our departments involved in state government have done. there's been so proactive. -- they have been so proactive. people need to know that there is not one shrimp, oysters, fish, not one bird that is harvested and put on the market unless it has undergone an extensive test. >> we have worked closely with the louisiana seafood promotion and marketing board, with the

louisianan convention and visitors bureau, with the mayor's office. this is a collective effort to ensure that we do not lose valuable tourism revenue. this is all a lot more than just a safety of seafood issue. this is jobs and livelihoods right here in new orleans, in addition to all the lives and jobs we're talking about in the affected areas. the negative publicity we see all over the world -- this is an international story -- is something we are diligently trying to get a handle on and get ahead of. we're working with the national restaurant association and many of the other state restaurant association partnersswho are affected and not affected because those other restaurants and other restaurant associations want to help us. they understand that a lot of their product comes from this

area. >> no doubt about it. let's talk about restaurants. after katrina, we have more restaurants open before katrina. if you can imagine, we have mower restaurants open post- katrina than we did pre-katrina. we are open for business. >> the restaurant industry really led the recovery. it was mandatory that restaurants come back and open because we had so many first responders in the city. many of the restaurants came back right away. they cleaned out their restaurant and they got back to business. this oil spill could not have happened at a worse time because we are on pace with one- third of destination markets in the u.s., we are number 3.

this is booming business for the restaurants because we see people who come here for conventions, leisure travelers, meeting planners, things like that. this is a way of life for us here. restaurants connect our culture. there is business done over a table here. >> all the time. >> reunions, and celebrations. restaurants are critical to our culture. >> we want to get the world that -- word out that we are open for business. we are open for your party's, come down and enjoy bourbon street. enjoy our restaurants. enjoy a great weekend or a great week in new orleans. you walk outside, you are not smelling oil. there is not a drop of oil in the mississippi river. this is coming from our

coastline, about 40 or 50 miles away from the city of new orleans. absolutely. it is a beautiful day. it is about 70 or 80 degrees. next weekend we have three festivals in one weekend, the louisiana seafood festival, the cajun zydeco festival, and the tomato festival. we just came off the new orleans wine and food experience. it was wonderful. in the superdome, we had 75 restaurants come out and 1000 winery's. we did record business. it was a record was -- record business -- record weekend for us. >> people finally understood. peoplesoft new orleans was back in wanted to come here. they got engaged with new orleans culture.

now we are fighting this battle again. we need to get that message out that we need your business here in new orleans. >> du can eat out inexpensively you can stay here in expansively. you can fly in inexpensively. you can get from the airport to downtown in expensively. we are walkable and likable -- bike-able. we have a lot of cultural assets. you can come here on a budget. >> on a budget, and still have a fantastic time. tell everyone that on behalf of those involved in the seafood industry why it is important not just to eat the seafood, but to come down to new orleans. >> new orleans is an authentic united states destination.

from the food, to the cultural aspects to the beautiful mississippi river, to the architecture, the history, the music, you have to come here. >> think you for being with us. -- thank you for being with us. you can watch us on c-span right now until 3:00. you can also listen live at wistradio.com. that is where our podcast is.

>> for those of us -- for those of you listening and watching on c-span, this has affected us on three fronts. new orleans is finally coming back from the perception that we were under water, that it was not the same city after katrina. a lot of this had to do with the new orleans saints. you felt the bible -- vibe of what this team did and how it lifted us as a community. it is like it changed overnight after the saints'' victory in the super bowl. people are coming not just for mardi gras or the jazz, we have had to overcome a lot of the bad publicity after katrina.

now we are fighting on this front to make sure people understand that not one morsel of louisiana seafood is being released unless has been tested. the final front that we're fighting this battle on is to fight for the existence of our culture and our coastline. the inundation of salt water because of oil exploration and oil production on our wetlands, on our barrier islands, that are our first and second lines of defense. a native new orleanian as myself is asking you to keep this in your prayees. if you caught -- if you have an opportunity to come down, come down. we are tied to the oil and gas industry and to the seafood industry and the tourism

industry. we are being strangled on all three fronts. what we are trying to do is send a message to people in this country about what we are dealing with in south louisiana. we wanted to know that we know that going forward, this is going to be a fight for our very existence. we want people from the united states of america to stand with us as you did in the aftermath of katrina. five years later, the gulf coast is on its knees again. we need everyone to pull together as americans as we have done with every crisis that has affected this country. let's come together as one. the assault on our shores is not from a foreign army, but from the intrusion of oil. we do not know how this will

affect us in the long term. when you throw in the dispersant, we do not know how it will affect the fisheries, or those of us who live on the coast, long term.

>> welcome back. you are listening to the mighty 690. we want to thank those of you who have been watching us on c- span all afternoon. we want to thank the folks from c-span for coming into our studios today to hear the plight of the folks in south louisiana. to the phone lines we go. jack is in tennessee. he has been holding. welcome. >> you have done a great job. i can just imagine what it would be like with oil coming up as i sit in this rv by the lake. the people -- is your livelihood. you cannot depend on what you are hearing from bp or the government.

i am not a radical, but your people have the knowledge, the ability, the volunteers to get out and deal with sand berms. i believe they need to do it because i do not think they are getting -- we do not need weeks of studies to know what is going on. >> all of this has been invented -- vetted post- katrina. this has been vetted by the army corps of engineers. they have been dragging their feet. bp seems to be more worried about public relations nightmares and they are about protecting the new one -- the louisiana and estuaries and coastlines. >> sometimes, people have to

take over to get things done. >> a man. >> if you have the volunteers, the equipment, whatever, get the sand berms done. we do not have time to wait for approval. i am not a radical. >> we are americans. it is not about being radical. we want what is best for america. thanks for joining us ffom tennessee. stephen from connecticut, welcome. are you with me, steven? let's go to bob in arkansas? bob, are you in arkansas? >> yes. >> welcome. >> >i worked as an engineer off shore for a couple of years. the big thing you guys are missing about this dispersant -- i worked on a platform for about

a year and we carried to 55- gallon drums of dispersant. in case of a spill, my job was to go below, turn the pumps on, go up above, get on the fire monitor, and by that time, the deckhand would have a 55-gallon drum. i would train the fire monitor on the drum. we would put one engine forward and one in reverse. we would drive to this bill and turn it on. that barrel of dispersant -- we never used it -- but according to the redmen -- rigman, that barrel of dispersant would get

rid of several hundred barrels of oil. it would be gone. my theory and, i don't have any cards in the game anymore, my theory is you have a company that makes their own dispersant, ships on their own boat to their own rate, indexes into their own well, and when you are calling product -- ships it on their own boats to their own or rig, in jackets -- injects into their well. when you are selling product, -- if you do not measure, [unintelligible]

they measured when it goes in and when it goes out. that is paid by the company. a company that cannot tell whether they are billing -- leaking 26 or 55 gallons a minute on the seafloor, the follow me? >> do i file you. i appreciate the phone call. -- i follow you. i appreciate the phone call. there is a dispersant that is less toxic and could have been used. the dispersant being used right now was developed by exxon. the effectiveness on louisiana sweet crude -- when you talk about dispersant, it is more effective and less toxic. welcome, you are on the mighty

690. >> i wanted to comment. i think you guys are doing really good down there. i hope you would stay on task on this. i was on mount st. helens 30 years ago. there were hundreds of people who went to the levee and sandbag. what we saw coming down that river was water. we realized we did not know how to handle this. that is what this is. i encourage you to take your anger and your pain -- which, believe me, i do feel because this is a global catastrophe -- take that and channel it into,

ok, bp is this and that. ok, what do we need to do? it is up to us. we cannot sit around and point fingers at people. we have to get people out there. we have to court and a people and volunteers from across the country. -- we have to coordinate people and volunteers from across the country. >> i think you from the call from washington. -- forhink you from the the call from washington. we are seeing at. all we want is the feddral government to help or get out of the way. we do not need bp to call the shots. this was an opportunity for the federal government to step up and make sure they did not

repeat the mistakes of the aftermath of katrina. the federal government was very slow on this process, allowing a major corporation to call the shots on this. let's get the federal government out here and make sure they protect the united states soil, the united states coastline from demise. yes, we have great ideas down here. people call the show each and every day and talk about their ideas about how to combat the oil intrusion. one way is to build the sand berms to protect the louisiana coastline. the corps of engineers, the coast guard, and the federal government have dragged their feet for weeks. we cannot wait one more minute. we need to build these sand berms and uild them now. the sign -- the science is there. we have to want to and we have to do it. if it is not done soon, you will see a lot of louisianans on the

coastline doing it ourselves. there is no time to waste when we're seeing our culture and way of life going away. kevin, how are you? >> i am doing well how are you? >> i am doing better than you are. explain how your life has changed in the last -- in the last few weeks. >> this will shed some light to the rest of the world about how bp is handling this cleanup. first, they contacted the company, are you familiar with it? >> no. >> bp has hired this company to give a hazmat class to all the licensed fishermen in the state of louisiana.

they have been offering these glasses for three weeks. we took the class three weeks ago. all right? i have to home ports, one in st. bernard parish, where you are from. they offered us a contract after this. after showing it to my attorney, he said not to sign it because i would give up our future rights. our attorney general nipped that in the bud. we never heard a thing from bp. i am scratching my head. let me figure out what is going on, i said. i went to the bp command center and to the -- where is it -- by hope they'll they have a deal

set up -- by hopedale, they have a deal set up by one of the churches. they don't know what is going on. i asked the sheriff if he saw anybody going to work to clean this up. he said, yes. you have to go talk to the parish officials because now the politicians are involved in who gets to go clean things up. if we don't know you, you don't pet the work. it is not about the money. you should see what is going on down there. it is amazing. >> thank you. i appreciate the phone call. over 1200 commercial louisiana fishermen are out of work right now. they stepped up to the plate

shortly after the deepwater horizon collapsed and we realized what type of inundation of oil was coming our way. less than 300 or hired for the cleanup. this was in the early stages when we could have protected the wetlands, laid out a boom, gotten the sand berms started. less than 300 were hired. we have been told by those involved in the exxon valdez spill in alaska that in a lot of cases you will see those working in the shoreline -- on the shoreline with hazmat suits. we have fishermen living room with nothing more than t-shirts and shorts. are they protected? to unprotected when planes are spilling dispersant into the gulf? please.

that is the problem when you let p corporation take the lead. when they lead the effort, all they are worried about doing right now is to make sure that from a public-relations standpoint, the oil is not on the surface so the whole world sees how much oil is coming out. i am sorry. tony hayward from bp, you have not told us the truth. it is time for the president to get involved, not from the white house but from louisiana. give us the chance to save ourselves and let his build the sand berm. imelda in brownsville, texas. welcome. >> this is the first time i have heard your program. i am appalled at what has happened. it is time for bp to get out of the way.

america is in a terrible situation. what will happen to the whole gulf coast line, starting from texas all the way up. -- all the way up? it is a tragedy. the president needs to give power to someone who knows what they are doing. bp is not cutting it. has been over a month. how long will everyone on the coastline have to wait for things to be done correctly? this is creating a horrible tragedy for those who live in louisiana and whose livelihoods are at stake. if louisianan goes down, and in mississippi, all of that coastline, including all the way up, it will take everything if a hurricane comes. doesn't that mean anything to anyone in washington? i already called my congressman.

i will call my senator. we have to band together and get washington involved. hopefully, the president will make the right decision. we need to get volunteers out there. everything is going downhill. louisiana is going to lose everything. it is not worth it. it is not fair. people have worked so hard. what happened after katrina is continuing to happen today because of lack of federal intervention. >> i could not have said it better myself. i know people in the louisiana gulf coast appreciate it. bail -- dale in california. >> we have technology out here we have been trying to promote. i spoke with admiral allen last week. we contacted the epa.

we had a tiny spill here in san francisco a few years ago. that was $160 million to clean up this small oil spill. we are talking about billions and billions of dollars in potential cleanup costs, not to mention the cost for the brazilian people in your state and the states along the coast. our sympathies go out to them. this method, i don't want people contacting our company because we cannot handle all lot of phone calls. we need people to contact their congressmen and legislators and let them know this is an epa tested and certified. we have paid our dues. we have gone through the formalities of going through the process for that certification.

we have done all d.c. tests. there is absolutely no down side -- we have done all the tests. there is no downside. we need to attack this oil to biodegrade it. we need to get that out there and get it cleaned up. it will do it safely and in a matter of weeks. we have a 30-day cleanup plan and a 100-day cleanup plan. we are ready to go and will take any assistance from your listeners to contact the people who will have the say-so. >> de website viewers ccn go about -- the website people can go to? >> that is by noworldusa.com --

bioworldusa.com >> to las vegas and ricky. rikki, welcome. -- ricky, welcome. >> environmental and conservation groups have been telling the people of louisiana not to drill these oil wells because this kind of thing can happen. they also told the fishermen, shrimpers, and oysterman to stop reaping -- raping the oceans of the way they do. for this to happen -- it was what they told you was going to happen. now everyone in louisiana suddenly loves their ocean. for the last 100 years you have been reaping -- raping your

ocean and saying "drill, a baby, drill." now the roosters have come home to roost. >> do you like driving your car? without louisiana and without the opportunity for oil exploration, you would not be able to do that. we energize and feed this country. i am sorry. i feel your pain, but at the same time, no one loves the land, the air, the water more than louisianans. we have had people living -- making their living off the land and water for centuries. the last thing they want to do is rape it. they want to nourish it. politicians have sold us up the river. we have been too stupid to

figure it out sometimes. politicians have told us one thing and done another. we have given a lot to energize this country so we can bring the imported oil to our refineries so we can refine those petrochemicals so you have a chance to drive your car, so people in washington, d.c. and new york have heating oil to be worn in the winter. our fishermen and farmers aree+ not raping the land and water. they are nurturing it. but, yes, we were lied too we were led by corporations and by the federal government. -- we were lied to by corporations and by the federal government. it was the responsibility of mms. we were told they had it down. obviously, they did not. it is on the mms and the federal

government for not doing what they were supposed to do -- protect the citizens of this great country. mike is in arkansas. welcome. >> that guy was off-base. i will take this one step further. after the first couple of weeks of this leak, somebody saw an opportunity to empoverish the whole southern part of the united states. that may sound paranoid, but the more i've thought about its, but the more i've seen no results and no action by our federal government, to me is because it has been done on purpose. who is going to end up paying for all this stuff? you are talking about billions of dollars. in the meantime, everybody in the south will become impoverished. we will be, and impoverished

nation. look at these stimulus. is a step-by-step systematic taking of the money from the middle class. that is what i believe. for that guy to call in a, i do not know where he is coming from. >> he is not educated about the facts. if he knew about the people of louisiana and how much we love the land, the water, the estuaries -- you come from the bayou, you know as well as i do. the people on the buy you understand what they have in terms of the natural estuaries. they do not reap its -- they do not rape it. >> this is hurting no one harder than them. >> a lot of those folks, you grew up with them, all they know is fishing. all they know is what they have

done for generations. now there is a possibility that could be taken away from them. there is no backup plan. joining us now is dr. eric smith from tulane university. thank you for being with us. bp has tried the top kill procedure and the jump shot. neither worked. they are now on -- the junk shot. neither worked. they are now on their ninth procedure. explain the procedure they are putting together. >> they are doing to procedures. -- they are doing two procedures. they're cutting away the wreckage of the rig.

it has been that laying there. they will cut that away. they will clean up the edge. then, they will install a cap over its which will be a into a drill pipe that will go up to the drillship. it is a first cousin of the things they tried earlier on. this is not a permanent fix. this is something to hold things together until they can complete the a relief well. if this does not work, they have one more trick up their sleeve which is to remove the cap and install a new b.o.p. over the b.o.p.

>> there was a problem before where they tried the top hat scenario. how dii they stop the freezing this time? >> therr is less salt water available. this is a lot closer to the source of the oil. it will be naturally warmer than at the end of the 5000-foot pipe. >> each blowout preventer is made differently. .o.p. is not a uniform b eo how do we know that blowout preventer or the captain are source right now?rectly on the%-

>> they have not told me, but i will give you what i am thinking about. in terms of the cap, it has been manufactured specifically for that application. if it does not fit, shame on whoever measured it. as far as the b.o.p., they often use the same parts when they come from the same manufacturer. i think it will stop drilling the second relief well use it as a piggyback unit. there is already one there, but it was a different source. >> dr. smith, talk relief wells being drilled right now and how they are approaching the source of the leak and how they are expected,

maybe by august, to completely shut this off. we hope this scenario works with the cap they are trying to put on. if that does not work, tell us what bp is doing in terms of dealing two relief wells to stop this leak. >> the relief wells are the only permanent solution and that has always been the case. no matter what we have done over the last 20 days or so, we were always going to drill a relief well and that was the permanent cure. the idea was to start about 3,000 feet away from the offending well bore, drill to about 10,000 feet below the surface of the water, 5,000 feet below the soil, make a 45 degree turn and intercept the bottom of the or original well bore at about 18,000 feet.

then, they will pump the heavy kilt fluid -- having kill fluid which should provide the countervailing pressure to reduce and eliminate the oil and gas coming out of the reservoir. beyond that, they would pump cement, just as they pass -- planned to do with the top kill, after they drill the kill fluid. there would be a physical blockage to prevent oil from migrating in the future. >> the procedure that bp is using right now to try to stop the leak -- because of the cutting of the riser, before they can fit that custom-made

cap in place, more oil will leak into the gulf of mexico. can you tell us about that scenario and why it has not been used previously? >> the riser was never intended as a morning post. it became a mooring post. as that happened, it went from being vertical to horizontal on the seafloor. you had a crimp develop at the top. that crimp broke in several places. anybody watching the live at feed has seen shots of the bent pipe. that crap, ironically, reduced the cross-sectional area.

they think that helped retard the flow somewhat. that is what you will lose when you cut off the drilling riser. you will lose that restriction. that was precluded as an option by the government, as i understand it'. they said to try everything else they could. >> that is why they are using this scenario. thank you for being with us. in your mind, the best scenario we have seen is the one they are doing now. >> is an acceptable one. my personal favorite of the group is the b.o.p. stack

because you do not end with any more spillage. i will defer to the government and to the crew, not only bp, but the hole drilling swat working on this. >> professor eric smith, thank you for being with us. i ant to thank everyone who has been here with us. to our friends watching us on c- span, we just want the opportunity in louisiana to help ourselves. give us the opportunity to save our wetlands and protect ourselves from the next storm, from the inundation of oil onto

our precious and fragile wetlands. contact the president, your senator -- allow us to build this sand berm that can protect louisiana once and for all. to those of us -- to those who live along the gulf coast and have been affected by this already, know that we need in the american people to stand by us. once again, we are on our knees. we have rebounded from the biggest man-made disaster in the united states -- the levees breaking -- we will come back stronger than before. all we need is the opportunity for government to get out of the way and allow us to help ourselves. we can and do it. just give us the opportunity to do it. we want to thank c-span for being here today. we want to think the best producer of the planets.

-- on the planet. thank you for feeling the plight of the people of louisiana. ♪ >> >> vp is feeding live video from the gulf. on your screen, that is a large saw that is cutting through the pipe beneath the surface of the water. in washington, today, president obama for held his first meeting with the chairman to lead a panel that is investigating the oil spill. he spoke with reporters on the white house rose garden about those responsible who will be

prosecuted. irwi >> good day, everybody. " they will lead the national commission on the oil spill in the gulf. it is the greatest environmental disaster of its kind in their history. their job, along with the other members of the commission will be to thoroughly examine the causes so that we never faced such a catastrophe again. at the same time, we will fronts to contain the damage from this disaster and extend the help to the people of the gulf they need.

we have already mounted the greatest clinic effort in our nation's history and continue to monitor, minute-to-minute, the efforts to halt or capture the flow of oil from the wrecked bp welcome until it stopped, -- the wreck the bp well -- the srecked e wrecked bp well. what is being lost is not just a source of income, but a way of life. there are now more than 20,000 working around the clock to contain the oil. more than 1700 vessels are aiding in the response and will ensure that any and all responsible means of containing

this speller pursued. the economic response continues as well. we have ordered bp to pay economic injury claims and we will make sure that they deliver. the small business administration has stepped in to help business by approving loans and loan deferrals for existing loan payments. we have station to doctors and scientists across the region for looking -- to look for people's health. we will absolutely continue to hold bp and any other responsible parties accountable for financial losses borne by people in the region. but our responsibility does not end there. we have an obligation to investigate what went wrong and to determine what reforms are needed so that we never have to

experience a crisis like this again. if the laws on our books are insufficient to prevent such a spill, the laws must change. if its oversight was inadequate to enforce these laws, oversight needs to be reformed. if our laws were broken, leading to this death and destruction, my solemn pledges that we will bring those responsible on behalf of the victims of this catastrophe of the people of the gulf region. when interior secretary kinsella's art took office, he found an agency -- secretary ken salazar took office, he found an agency that had appaling activity that took place before last year. secretary sella's art immediately took steps to clean up that corruption. -- secretary salazar immediately took steps to clean up that corruption.

we have decided to separate the people who collect revenues and to regulate the safety of drilling. in addition, we placed a six- month moratorium on deep water oil and gas wells. the review recommended aggressive new operating standards and requirements for offshore companies, which will we will -- which we will put in place. all of that has to do with dealing with the crisis at hand. but it is critical that we take a comprehensive look at how the gas and oil industry operates and how our government oversees those operations. that is why i have signed an executive order assigning this commission.

i am thrilled that the bob grant and bill o'reilly have agreed to work as cochairs. bob grant has been a chairman of the -- a champion of the environment. bill has been the chairman emeritus of the wildlife organization. i cannot think of to people who will bring greater experience or judgment to this task. i personally want to thank both of them for taking on this arduous assignment, for demonstrating a great sense of duty to this country. very soon, i will appoint five other distinguished americans, including leaders in science and engineering to join them. they will work alongside other

reviews, including an independent examination by the academy of engineers. in our meeting, i said that, it in doing this work, they have my full support to follow the facts wherever they may leave, without fear or favor. i am diiecting them to report back with six -- in six months with how to mitigate the impact of any future spills from offshore drilling. as a result of this disaster, lives have been lost. businesses have been decimated. communities that had already known great hardship now face the specter of a sudden and painful economic dislocations. untold damage is being done to the environment.

it could last for decades. we owe all of those who have been harmed, as well as future generations, a full and vigorous accounting of the events that led to what has now become the worst oil spill in u.s. history. only then can we be assured that the border drilling can take place safely. only then -- only then can we be assured that offshore drilling can take place safety. thank you very much, everybody. >> this is more live video from

the gulf of mexico provided by bp. the company is trying other steps to contain the spill by sawing through the leaky pipe and putting a cap over the spill. you can see part of the procedure on your screen. the national incident commander said that bp was making its first major cut with supers years that weighed 46,000 pounds. here is his briefing. sheers that waeigh 46,000 pounds. >> mary landry has been coordinating the response so far and has been returned to her duties as the eighth district commander here in new orleans. she needs to be focused on the

larger array of threats present in the gulf and the midwest, which she is responsible for. i want to thank her personally for the outstanding job in a very remarkable and anomalous and unprecedented response. admiral papp, who relieved last week, will want to offer services there and what may be a challenging hurricane season. the goal is to have me speak with u.s. frequently as possible here in the region -- speak with you as frequently as possible here in the region. we brought a picture of this

response, what is going on, and will speak very frankly to the american public over what is happening. a couple of things i would like to talk about today, the reason why we're here in new orleans at the port authority, if later this afternoon, we will convene a meeting of state and local representatives and federal partners and representatives of academia. we will talk about the proposal submitted by the state of louisiana. and this is a topic of discussion with the president last week. he directed me to convene a meeting to obtain transparency -- transparency on it information associated with this.

that will happen this afternoon. we will have that meeting. when it is done, i will assemble the information derived from the meeting and present that to the present along with my recommendations. as we speak, we are in the first process of moving to the ability to control the oil leakage. as you know, during this last weekend, there were three different top kill attempts in consecutive days. it was unsuccessful in overcoming the pressure of the harbor commons -- of the hydrocarbons. capping the well involves a couple of things this afternoon. it involves cutting the riser pipe that you have seen on television. then there will be a second pup which is -- a second cut that is called a dime and wire cut. -- a diamond-wire cut.

the reason we want to do that is that we have two options. we have eight top cap, -- we have a top cap which we want first of the can do it. as i said, we're in the middle of the first cut. we will be reporting from our various locations this afternoon as we move through that process. after that, the goal will be to take the oil that is coming out of the well board, a ticket to the surface, and actually produce it. as we move to containments, rather than capping the well, there are some risk factors that we need to be aware of. was week cut the marine riser

pipe, the flow rate technical group estimates that we could see a 20% increase in oil flow. we discussed mitigation -- we disgusting mitigating impacts, but the fact of the matter is that there will be time where the hydrocarbons will be coming out of the well while week at the park, remove it, and put the cap in place. the second risk point is that we are moving into hurricane season. we will be producing more oil out of this well at a low rate. that means we will have to have a way to consider heavy weather, hurricane weather, and what to do about that. there are a couple of options right now, including a floating production facility which can be separated and moved off station should we get violent weather

during the hurricane season. in the next couple of days, i would be happy to give you more information on that. right now, we're concerned that we do not have the well capped. the hurricane season could make more of it to discharge. finally, the weather has moved to the south. as i have stated many times, this is not a huge monolithic oil slick. this is a bunch of smaller oil slicks, some very large, 15 miles in length and a couple of miles in length and covering eight two-mile radius. the reason why we have the segregation of smaller spills is that, as the oil comes to the surface, there has been different circumstances in the

weather and the tide. some have moved south and west of the mississippi river. but with the wind, it is moving toward mississippi sound and alabama. we have some contacts in alabama to indicate the impact out there. that is an update for today. i would be happy to answer eight any questions you have for me. >> the white house has expressed frustration. there was a representative from the coast guard standing with bps every single press conference. if they were given bad information, why did not someone from the government call them on the spot. -- on the spot? >> there may have been some disagreement on the flow rate, but that is a dead solid

estimate by our technical group. >> can you explain why bp is not here and does not have the expertise in capping the well? >> first of all, there are a couple of things that play. people in roberts, louisiana, we need to be communicating with the american people through my voice as the national incident commander. that does not mean that we're not talking with bp. we need to understand that we need to communicate that to the coast guard is well. >> we have yet to see or hear a timeline for what is happening with the operations, starting this afternoon. can you help us out with a little bit of a time frame on what to expect for the next couple of days? >> as soon as the abysssheer

cut -- as soon as the sheer cut occurs, they will do the diamond wire saw. the pot will be removed and they will evaluate has moved the cut is -- they will remove the pipe and they will evaluate how smooth the cut is. these two different devices have already been deployed. there will be time where the vessels will move that into place. when the cap is on, they will get into position to huckabee enterprise vessels on the servic-- position tthe enterpris

on the surface. -- position the enterprise of vessels on the surface. >> [unintelligible] what do you think that means for these discussions you will have this afternoon about how much the barrier island will be built if this plan is adopted? >> you can talk about how much, but you need to talk about the extremities' that this oil has impacted. we know that it is behind the chandelier islands. that brackets the area within which [unintelligible] you can talk about how much oil as a short, but to the area is

defined -- but the area is defined. >> [unintelligible] >> we have already authorized one of them to be used as a prototype. that is with the discussion will be about to date. it -- about today. this is a very complicated proposal, something that has never been contemplated before, as far as oil spill response. there are a lot of pros and cons associated with it. this is supposed to be done in an environmentally sensitive area. there will be construction going on during hurricane season. those are the discussions we will have this afternoon. would winning by this and whether the effects we're trying to achieve and what are the pros

and cons? >> they say there are 3,000 acres of land with oil right now [unintelligible] do you have any estimates on that? >> we're getting into a conversation of linear shoreline versus how deep is it. mild-to-shoreline does not equate to the impact we have -- mile-to-trough decided quick to the impact we have. >> [unintelligible] people are still very feel full of the dispersants -- very

fearful of the dispersants. [unintelligible] >> first of all, i had discussions this week with secretary harris. he and i agreed that we need to integrate. we are creating [unintelligible] we are in the provinces -- we're in the process of developing and m.o.u. there will be a formal way to look at protocol and how to use safety violations and how to deal with information for public safety. we actually pulled those people together. i felt we needed a more

integrated way to put to those folks into the most used. we will be approaching it as the team. >> [unintelligible] >> there are a couple of issues. you're talking about occupational health and safety or the dispersants? i am not sure we really understand that there's a connection between their delivery of dispersants and incidents of folks somehow being impacted by that on land. to that end, bp has been doing sampling all over the coastline. i am not sure that we have a causal link between folks on land and the aerial dispersant screen. bp will continue to monitor. we'll understand exactly what the implications are for the dispersants. certain conditions have to be met, wind condition and so

forth. >> [unintelligible] >> no, it is not the same one. that is a different container. the devices much smaller. one is capable to put a rubber seal around it. it is the difference between having a rubber hose with a gasket on it or not. it will be based on how good the cat is. -- how good the cut is.

>> [unintelligible] >> right now, there is an issue of simultaneous operations. there are a lot of things being staged. there is a density of r.o.b.'s being states right now. >> [unintelligible] >> sure. >> [unintelligible] >> we are not talking about capping the well anymore. we're talking about containing the well. we are taking the hydrocarbons that are coming up and actually bringing them to the surface and producing oil and flaring of natural gas.

since we are in a containment operation, we do not want to restrict the pressure down in the well board. we want to be able to get that oil up and produce it. if you have it produced, it involves a vessel on the surface and while we go into a hurricane season, once we get this thing stabilized to bring out larger platforms, we have as good a package out there as we can, knowing that nothing is fail-safe with hurricane season coming. there may be a time that we would have to disconnect and accepted that there will be oil flowing. >> [unintelligible] >> i think there's a good level of confidence that one of them will go on and we will deal to contain some oil. as we said -- we will be able to

contain some well. >> operators, we can take calls from the foul lines. >> -- from of the phone lines. >> admiral, president obama says that the federal government has insisted on a second relief well be drilled. i've understand that that operation has been suspended -- i understand that that operation has been suspended. >> in fact, they are back drilling again. when the second rig was deployed for the second relief well, it was an opportunity to bring an end [unintelligible] out to the side coming case that

was the way we wanted to cap the well. that was called de-driller ii. the reason why it takes that, of the moon riser package are about 1 million pounds. it takes a natural drilling apparatus to deploy this. so they put a second blowout preventer to be the backup in case the one on top of the current one was the solution. as they moved into top kill, they move to the drill rig over. that did not happen. they redeployed back and have continued drilling the block. there are now back drilling the second relief well now. >> the dutch government is

sending over equipment that will oilused to help draw the soi from the water. the u.s. coast guard has requested the equipment to be sent over. >> we are looking at offers of foreign assistance. we are reaching out to foreign governments. the equipment ready for us now is skimming equipment. we are reaching a to folks like the netherlands, canada, and mexico for sources and supply of that. with the potential to be any

containment scenario through the -- to be in a containment's an area through the hurricane season, we need vessels on the surface for skimming top of equipment. next question. >> good afternoon, at a mall. i wanted to ask if it is possible to provide information on the true picture of what is going on? >> everybody wants information

about this. they are frustrated. the images create an urgency to do something about it. but we're looking at a two- dimensional video and it is hard to understand what you are seeing. we had to go well beyond just the video and do some larger scale analysis to be able to actually get an estimate of what was more accurate. on the other hand, we need to understand that that isn't just one picture of what is going on down there. this country needs to make sure that, while we are frustrated and angry, we have to keep our heads in the game. we have to keep their shall look to the wheel, a few will appear in we have to -- we have to keep our shoulder to the wheel, it if you will. -- to the wheel, if you will.

>> the call quality has been externally -- and i have not understood very much of it. retched and iarily -- i have not understood very much of it. please go through that a gannett. -- go through that again. >> and there is reported oil in the western portion of mississippi sound. we have teams that will investigate that now. i don't have more detailed reports since i started the press conference. >> is there a percentage

attached to the success rate for a the [unintelligible] has the coast guard made any efforts during the course of this spell to obtain any direct estimates or measurement of the oil output? >> can you repeat the first question? >> [unintelligible] >> i am not sure that i would put a percentage to it. once, i it was known that the relief well needed a second one drilled.

it was prudent to have a backup well done. we will continue to drill on the second well until the first one is successful. i do not want to put a percentage associated with that because we are dealing with a very long distance and we are not that far along into the operation. regarding the amount of well, there was talk about whether 1,000 barrels or 5,000 barrels was the right measure. believe me, this is a catastrophic spill. our resources were not constrained by that estimate. for natural resources damage assessment and trying to understand the impact on the environment and long-term issues associated with the drill, we needed a better model. to that end, we revise those estimates significantly higher and we put those out last week. while we have better numbers,

they are still in a range between 12,000 barrels to 19 girls -- to 19,000 barrels. with it -- dealing we are still dealing with a long distance. we are still working within a range and we will continue to do that. >> operator, can we take one more question? >> yes. >> what will hurricane season specifically mean taken what you do? >> there is a standard readiness level that everybody goes through for hurricane season down here. i am sure that general pat is getting his folks ready. that is another reason why admiral landry has returned to her duties.

if we can get production successful, we need vessels that can withstand higher c. states -- higher sea states. thank you, folks. >> [unintelligible] >> that has some engineering problems that have been overcome with this. >> the installation of the second blow up prevent her on this leaking well, that option is now off the table? >> yes. >> what happens to the cap and the top cap if they do not work? what next? >> you get the larger domes that are less effective. the long-term issue is that we may be dealing with this problem

until august when we get the relief wells drilled. >> what happened with the jump shot? >> i am sorry, i should have mentioned that. at some point, they threw it in there. it was not substantial in helping to reduce that. it was not successful. it did not create unimpeded -- an impedence. >> [unintelligible] >> i think about 24 hours to 36 hours. that is a rough estimate. those are under conditions based on the rough cut. we cannot physically cap the well. if you do that, you build the pressure in it. thank you.

>> this is live video from bp. there is a large saw cutting through the pipe in the gulf of mexico. we just heard admiral allen talking about the fix that bp is working on to contain the oil. press secretary robert gibbs said that bp was not forthcoming about the possibility that the oil could lead to faster as a result of the latest attempt. capping the park could result in a 20% -- capping the pipe could result in a 20% increase in be leaking oil spill.

>> to topics, in the middle east, does president obama

condemned the israeli raid of the ship? >> let me simply restate what the international community and the united states supported early this morning at the u.s. security council through a presidential statement. the council deeply regrets the loss of life. the council condemned the acts which resulted in the loss of at least 10 civilians and many wounded and expresses its condolences to their families. the security council request immediately release of the ships and the families held by israel. >> they are looking for a stronger statement from the president directly. >> this is supported not just by the united states, but by the international community.

>> does the president feel like he is in the position of gathering facts about what happened or have you ascertained enough? >> the security council, the statement that i read, calls for an investigation that is part and parcel credible and legitimate. we are in support of that. >> on oil, on the spill, was this latest attempt to try to contain the well one that the bp came up with or is this an administrative directive? >> the top cap? >> yes. >> i believe, in conjunction with a number of scientists, this was one of the options that has been before us for quite some time. obviously, any action undertaken by bp to deal with the well bore

and the well itself requires the sign-off. >> what is the president's level of confidence? >> i am not in the odds prediction in terms of this. obviously, this has gone on for too long. i think everybody is enormously frustrated with that. we are closely monitoring these events as they start. we are hopeful that this is a situation that will contain the oil coming from the well. obviously, we are in a different situation. i didn't know if you had a chance to hear admiral allen's

transcript will be put out as well. was the top kill. the hope is that that will lead to the cement capping of that well. they're now in the process of containing what is coming through that cap. >> of the president said that, when the top kill failed this weekend, the spill is enraging. to have you seen him in raids to? >> absolutely. -- have you seen him enraged? >> absolutely. i don't see how anybody can look

at what is happening in the gulf and not be frustrated and heartbroken. is my microphone on? >> no. >> i said all of those important things than you did not hear it? i was going to give out tomorrow's lottery numbers. can somebody in this something? [laughter] is it working now? this is sort of awkward. [laughter] this never happens at karaoke. [laughter] [applause] the first time that someone has come up for what i said.

bill will lips sink the transcript when it comes out. >> is there any consideration being given to the cancellation? >> let me look into that. >> the president said that if laws are broken, then justice will be done. can you give us an idea when the criminal probe will it emerge? >> the attorney general is in the gulf today to meet with state attorneys general. i would refer you to the department of justice. >> in light of what happened with the gaza flotilla, is the president considering at least back in the international call to lift the blockade of the strip by the israeli forces? >> obviously, as we said

before, we are concerned about the humanitarian situation in gaza and continue to work with the israelis and international partners in order to improve those conditions. obviously, if it is an untenable situation. we are working with those to improve the humanitarian conditions. i think it is helpful to understand that this is a blockade to not allow weapons to get into the hands of hamas. i will just leave it at that. >> is the president concerned that the flotilla incident might poison the atmosphere? will there be delays here?

>> obviously, the president spoke on three occasions yesterday with prime minister netanyahu. obviously, we regret that, but understand completely why he went back to israel and had to cancel the meeting. the schedule for mr. baas coming is still the same. more than ever, we need comprehensive middle east peace plans. >> will mr. mitchell be [unintelligible] >> i do not know his schedule on the top of my head. >> does president obama believe the israeli government's version of events? >> again, let me refer you to

the un security council statement. >> the investigation, does the president won the international community to be involved in the investigation -- does the president want the international community to be involved in the investigation? >> obviously, we are open to weigh is to assure a credible investigation, including international participation. >> there were americans on the flotilla. do we have any information about whether any of them were hurt? there are unconfirmed reports that an american student was lost. >> we have been in contact with the israelis in order to get an accounting as to whether there are any american citizens.

private citizens were on some of these ships. we're working to determine if those individuals were injured. as the resolution says, it would call on the israelis to release those people. >> after all of his work to repair relations in the muslim world, does a situation like this to destroy it overnight? >> again, i would point you to a clear statement by the international community that -- >> it condemns acts that were taken that led to the loss of life. but it does not say whose acts pick it could have been the flotilla's acts. >> i think this is a pretty

clear statement. >> whose acts is it? >> we are talking about a series of facts that will be determined by inappropriate investigation. >> the rest of the international information -- the rest of the international community may not be clear on the intermission. >> we can place regular ball all day. we condemn the loss of life and we regret it deeply. that is over, right? good. i would simply say, reiterate what is in a statement. in terms of their relationship with the muslim world, the president has spent a lot of time on improving our relationship with countries throughout the world and a special time and care on our relationship with the muslim world. i do not think that this will

have a great impact on that. >> i want to talk about oily little bit. -- about oil a little bit. why did it take so long to realize that they needed to speak as one voice? >> there was [unintelligible] today is the beginning of hurricane season. the federal on scene coordinator has nationally rotated back to her position as hurricane prepared as in the gulf. this is likely to be a more active season than we have seen in the past. thus preparations are enormously important.

this has been a difficult situation because, as i have explained on a number of times, there are a lot of different agencies that go into what is made up of the larger federal response. when admiral palin was here last week, we talk about some of the commitments here let -- when admiral alan was your last week, we talked about some of the commitments here. the briefings that he has will not be in regular times and in a regular rotation. they will be whenever there conducive to his schedule, given the amount of things he has to do. >> the problem was that the bp was not always getting accurate information. >> they did not tell you that today. they told you that on sunday when carol browner wanted to

ensure that people adequately understood to the possible risks involved to the top cap procedure. when we cut the tacap, ourselves -- our scientists estimate that you could see a 20% increase in the overall outflow of hydrocarbons. this is something that our scientists and others had told us about. obviously, we were uncomfortable wwth saturday's briefing when somebody from bp did not acknowledge that. >> critics have been saying that the bp information was not adding up. you had outside experts saying that it was leaking far more than 5,000 barrels a day. >> which is why we set up a group to determine accurately, using the best technology possible -- >> but then it took until sunday

to say that the bp information was not accurate. >> you're confusing eight issues into one. the flow rate is an important issue to talk about. the initial estimates that were done use overhead photography to measure the amount of oil on the surface. we know that it is likely that not everything is going to the top. even with the picture that many of you are using on television, it is not sufficiently of the dimension to fully measure the flow. we have never been dependent upon bp for information about the flow. in fact, i think you have heard many in the administration discuss accurately that the fines for bp will be determined

by the amount of pollution emitted, they may not have the same transparent public interest that we do in ensuring that the public knows exactly, to the best of our scientific ability, what is coming from the well. >> the president talked today about crime more resources and personnel -- about throwing more resources and personnel to the gulf. yet, it is still not capped despite those resources. >> the tripling of resources is in the parishes in which we see the greatest amount of oil hit land. obviously, there continues to be a frustration with the well not to be capped. we're trying to do everything within their power. our interests line up on this. the american people's interest

in the company's interest lines up on doing everything humanly possible to cut it of. >> but your throwing reassures is at it and yet you cannot solve it. the president had run on confidence in government. so you throw resources at it and you cannot solve it. >> the president resources that he talked about our resources on land to deal with what is coming in. inherent in the premise of your question is that we're not doing enough to cap the well. >> so then nobody really knows how to fix this thing. >> i do know that the promising your question is that somebody in this room knows how to do it and we are not doing it. >> they're talking about how, since day one, [unintelligible] button the previous week, when

you were pressed on why the government did not step in, you repeatedly said that the government cannot, that it belonged to bp. >> we have always directed those resources, whether it was the top kill, the top cap, any of the exercises that needed to be signed off by the federal on scene coordinator to make it happen, those were done. >> the initial reaction to the international crime was pitiful. if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms. what is this ironclad relationship where a country deliverly kills people and

boycotts aid -- >> the initial reaction is regrading the loss of life. we're trying to gather the relevant -- nothing can bring them back, alan. that is for sure. if you could, that would not be up for debate. we believe that a credible and transparent investigation has to look into the facts. as i said earlier, we are interested in international participation in it. >> why do not initially condemn it? >> i think that the statements we released speak directly to that. >> you said earlier that the president is enraged. is he enraged at bp specifically? >> i think he is enraged at the time that it has taken.

he has been enraged over the course of this when you're told that something is fail-safe and it is not and that is the cause for frustration. this is one of the reasons you heard him discuss the setting up of the royal commission in order to create a regulatory framework that ensures that something like this does not happen again. >> frustration and rage are very different emotions. have we really seen rage on the president -- raised from the president on this? >> i have. >> [unintelligible] >> he has been in a whole lot of different meetings with clenched jaw, saying that everything has to be done to plug the damn hole