there's more marshland there than anywhere else.t got a big clump of oil a mile long coming in there right now. >> we do have a sense of urgency. but there are clubs of oil coming into mobile. when you look at the big picture, it is extremely urgent, but this is the whole gulf coast. it is affecting us right now, but i was sitting right now -- right next to gov. riley, and he was pitching a complete fit to the president, saying, you said all the boom from alabama to louisiana. to you, if that changes in the next week, and it all starts moving to mobile, and he is telling the president, you've left us defenseless. >> the coast is full of navy boom, and we don't have enough containment. >> i am not defending them, i am just telling you it is a big coast. >> you got marshland in louisiana that you cannot clean up. but when you talk about the beach, it is a different story. we can claim the beach. they can skim biloxi beach. but the areas where we have, if you can go in and did that. >> do we know how many miles it would take to block a

there is more marshland than anywhere else. what people don't realize is they have big clumps of oil 1 mile long coming in right now. >> we have a assert -- we have a sense of urgency, but there are clubs of welcoming into mobile, alabama right now -- when you look at the big picture, and not saying it's not urgent, it is extremely urgent, but is the whole gulf coast. i was sitting -- i was sitting next to the governor and the prisoner was pitching a complete fit to the president, saying he has sent all of the boom from alabama to louisiana. all of my dems are in louisiana. -- all of my blooms are in louisiana. -- all of my booms are in louisiana. he is telling the president, you have left us defenseless. >> miles and miles of navy boom and we don't have enough to contain the spill. >> i am not defending them, i'm just telling them it is a big coast. >> the marshlands in louisiana, you cannot clean that up. when you talk about the beach, it's a different story. clean the beach. -- if it washes ashore on the beach, they can clea

there's more marshland there than anywhere else.e do have a sense of urgency. but there are clubs of oil coming into mobile. when you look at the big picte, it is extremely urgent, but this is the whole gulf coast. it is affecting us right now, but i was sitting right now -- right next to gov. riley, and he was pitching a complete fit to the president, saying, you said all the boom from alabama to louisiana. to you, if that changes in the next week, and it all starts ving to mobile, and he is telling the president, you've left us defenseless. >> the coast is full of navy boom, and we don't have enough containment. >> i am t defending them, i am just telling you it is a big coast. >> you got marshland in louisiana that you cannot clean up. but when you talk about the beach, it is a different story. we can claim the beach. they can skim biloxi beach. but the areas where we have, if you can go in and did that. >> do we know how many miles it would take to block all the marshlands in louisiana? what is it? >> 21 miles. >> if we stop it

in the marshland there is a depth composite and the effect could be far greater than that. >> you say you are in contact with the white house, that you are getting everything you need. some people in the gulf coast saying there are not enough skimmers or people on the beaches. i've been misinformed? you mentioned optimizing production. i understand you want to get as much out of it. do they have to forfeit that oil and the profit? >> the reason why they have to keep the production going is not what they want to recoup for production, but it alleviates pressure on the well bore. we did the top kill, were able to force mud down the well board to the point we suppress the oil. but the reason -- and the minute they stopped pumping the mud is the oil came back up. they don't know the condition of the wallboard. if you exert pressure on that, you would not want to force the oil out and haven't come up to the sea floor so you want to produce the oil for safety and containment. it should they have to forfeit that oil? >> that is above my big rig. >> they are the responsible party. they will b

many species start their life cycle here in the marshlands of louisiana. the plants are dying. the fish, all the while light is dead. we wl of lost hundreds of birds, thepelican's just got off the endangered species list. i bet when th is over it will be back on it. we've lost hundreds of pelican, their eggs are covered with young -- with oil. someone needs to step up and do absolutely everything physically possible to keep this oil from destroying our eye. it is unthinkable. >> billy, en you start talking about the problems that we're dealing with, you've been very articulate in expressing to no just those in louisiana but around the country. we are truly fighting an enemy that we cannot see because of the dispersants sprayed in the gulf of mexico. normally the blooms would be of texas oil for reaches are estuaries and wetlds. but because the dispersants have been sprayed, the oil is coming under the boom and it hits the land. and that that is one of the reasons why we need this sand bermbelt now. >> absolutely. bp said it would not come ashore. we knew that that was not true.

many species start their life cycle here in the marshlands of louisiana. the plants are dying. all the fish, all the while light is dead. we will of lost hundreds of birds, the pelican's just got off the endangered species list. i bet when this is over it will be back on it. we've lost hundreds of pelican, their eggs are covered with young -- with oil. someone needs to step up and do absolutely everything physically possible to keep this oil from destroying our eye. it is unthinkable. >> billy, when you start talking about the problems that we're dealing with, you've been very articulate in expressing to not just those in louisiana but around the country. we are truly fighting an enemy that we cannot see because of the dispersants sprayed in the gulf of mexico. normally the blooms would be of a texas oil for reaches are estuaries and wetlands. but because the dispersants have been sprayed, the oil is coming under the boom and it hits the land. and that that is one of the reasons why we need this sand berm belt now. >> absolutely. bp said it would not come ashore. we knew that t

all of that reaches the coast line, as we've seen it now going under the booms and reaching the marshlanda very, very sensitive environment. as well as florida where pretty much all forms of marine life will spend some time there to hide and find food and protection from predators and on and on and on. >> brown: with the dispersants isn't there a trade-off? isn't the idea to keep more of the oil from coming to the coast? >> i don't believe that's the answer. i think the long-term damage and consequences are much higher than if we allow them to come to the surface and start to skim it. pick it up like we've done in other parts of the world. playing god is not acceptable. >> brown: playing god, you think that's what they're doing. >> that's what we're doing by pouring these chemicals without even knowing what it does. it's completely unacceptable. >> brown: you know, most of us, i imagine, think that as the technology improves for leaching into the earth to extract the oil that the technology for dealing with a problem wouldal advance. maybe we just don't think about it. now we learn otherw

we flew over endless marshlands dotted with oil platforms. oil has been big business in louisiana since the first offshore well was drilled there in 1947. from overhead, we could see the vast petroleum infrastructure in fort fourchon, the state's southernmost port. it services over 90% of the gulf of mexico's deepwater oil production, with over 600 oil platforms. the petroleum industry accounts for 17% of all jobs in the state and we saw hundreds of the 5,000 or so oil platforms that dot much of the gulf coast waters, a virtual city on the water, pumping oil and gas, and piping it to shore. 37 miles offshore on the continental shelf, more than 90 miles from the b.p. "deepwater horizon," was our destination, a production platform called ewing bank 305. built by conoco in the 1980s, it is now owned by independent oil producer louisiana-based stone energy. this production platform operates routinely, sending 2,500 barrels of oil and 11 million cubic feet of gas to the shore every day. since stone bought it eight years ago, it has had no leaks, n

-- are being used to keep crude oil off of the marshlands. we have a response from at royal thad allen -- admiral thad allen. >> good morning, folks. i would like to talk about the operations out in the gulf with containment. i will discuss operations locally. i would like to talk about this unique facility. last week, i was given the responsibility to do the daily press briefing. i have been asked a lot of questions about why that was happening. one of the reasons is because i move around a lot. where i go, the press follows. it gives us a chance to highlight and frame the different operations around the gulf. it is important to understand that we are in theodore, alabama, at a facility owned by a local gentleman. we're supporting patriot industries, which is an oil spill response organization, employed by british petroleum to set up a staging area and a base camp for operations all around the gulf. i want to complement everybody that is involved in this operation. everybody that is involved in this operation. 90% of the people working here

of engineers as a legitimate means to deal with the oil spill, to keep it from getting into the marshlands of louisiana. i've had several conversations with the governor about the. i will be meeting with him later on today. regarding the current trajectory, the upper edge of the perimeter of the spills, and would call themselves to turn this is a collection, not a monolithic spell -- monolithic spill. we have moved a large number of coast guard assets into the area. in terms a medium endurance cutters that has the opportunity to do surveillance. we have positioned organic skimming capability. we have a number of controlled .boats we have not been able to conduct skimming operations. we will continue to focus on the mississippi, alabama area. we continue to move boom into alabama. we look at strategies to deal with what they call katrina cut. with that, but i would like to take questions. you always go first. i'm going to go over here. >> cbs news radio. obviously, you have tried caping before. it has not worked. how hard is it to put a containment cap over this pipe, considering all of the

we need to understand where it comes ashore in a marshland, there is a depth component to this and theffect could be far greater. >> you say you're in contact with the white house and that you're getting everything you need. they're people down on the gulf that say there are not enough skimmers. are they just misinformed? and you mentioned optimizing production. there's an incentive for bp to pull that oil out. should they have to forfeit that oil and that profit to disincentivize them from keeping that going? >> there reason they want to keep production going is not what they may recoup out of in terms of production. it alleviates pressure on the well bore. we did the top kill and were able to force mud down the well bore to the point where we actually suppressed all the war. but the minute they stopped pumping the mud, the oil came back up.

there's more marshland there than anything else. big clumps of oil coming past right now. >> we do have a sense of urgency about it. there are forms of oil coming in. looking at the big picture, it is really urgent. but this is the entire coast. it is affecting us right now but i was sitting next to it not just to tell you this, but the president was pitching a complete set and another man was having a fit, send -- upset that all of the boom went to louisiana. saying that the oil changes course and it will start moving into mobile. he told the president that they were defenseless. >> there are miles and miles of navy boom. >> they are trying to organize it. i am not defending them, but i am telling you it is a big coast. >> marshland in the vienna cannot be cleaned. talking about the beach it is a different story. we can clean the beach. the areas that we have, you cannot just go in. >> do we know how many miles it will take to block all of the marshes? >> in jefferson it is 21. >> but it is stopped at the coastline. >> than that is

thank you for all you do and for appreciating how valuable that marshland is. d.c., republican line. carol, good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i have a question, but first i just wanted to just comment. with the exxon valdez, i know + they did an investigatiin, and from the very beginning, you know, news came forwarddthat this was, you know, related to the incompetence of the captain on board and previous convictions he had for drinking while on duty. what do we know as far as this investigation goes? what was the cause? was it terrorism? was it just a manmade accident? what's going on and why isn't guest: i think the exxon valdez was basically an accident. you know, there are often -- i mean, actually, if you look around the world, there are tanker spills with fair frequency for one reason or another. the reason i think the exxon valdez was so important was, one, it was a massive supertanker. the volume was considerable. and two, it was a very fragile, pristine alaska environment with wonderful, rich, natural resources. so it was the juxtaposition of, you

there are literally thousands of people who make their living because the marshlands in louisiana thrive to be breeding grounds and producing grounds for numerous amounts of seafood products. and in fact, i would venture to say there isn't anybody who eats seafood in the united states and have done it for any length of time in all of their life has eaten seafood that was produced as a result of the overall environment of the louisiana coastal region, which is 99% marsh. . marsh is different from a beach. a beach is bad. if you have the gorgeous white sand beaches in pensacola, or in alabama, mississippi, or florida. tar balls on the beach this nasty sludge coming into the beach is going to bicy and yucky and nasty if you get it on your feet, you have to clean it up with alcohol, it can burn you, tear you up. but if that come into the marsh, it can kill, will kill, plant life, animal life, and ocean life. so when the governor of louisiana, who was so unfairly criticized here tonight by the opposition, if -- when the governor said, look, guys, at least authorize some dredging to put some s

it is kept out of the marshland. just that 15000-foot area. >> and when we brought this resolution of, one of our council members was a word about the scientific criticism of the berms. she weighed in on that but i came right back, we both came right back and made the statement that, that is not true for every area. the berms will work somewhere. that criticism has been because they are doing everything globally. it will work somewhere. >> when the president said we're going to have a roundtable discussion in the next three days, hancock and within 24 hours i will give you my aner. i said, that is fine, mr. president. what we heard was a bunch of naysayers halfway through. i one up and said, this is a dog and pony show. i am one to call the white house. i left the meeting and went outside and had an interview with somebody. i went back and, he called interrission, he said, we're going to give thearish presidents and the governor a chance to speak right after this hearing so that we can hear their side. i said, i am o

all these small fish and critters start the life cycle here in the marshlands of louisiana.e 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

but if you have to deal with it on a land, a beach is easier to deal with than a marshland. >> [inaudiblethey have improved -- after a week of test. >> i'm not sure what the question is but i'll give you a summary. there have been some reports of underwater oil plumes. the administrator of noaa has put together a large area sampleling plan to send vessels out and form a consort ym with the universities in the area to get data and test the higher carbons in the water column. that's being done right now including operating within a five-and ten-mile radius around the oil platforms and the place where the recovery is going on. those are starting to return to port. there are others going out. sometime in the near future they're going to put together a profile based on the data so we can understand what the picture looks like for the gulf area and relation to what kind of carbons are present and then come up with a general model of what's going on in the gulf. >> any more questions? >> does the cap seem to be working? is it doing what it's intended to do so far? >> yes. with a couple of caveya

it is kept out of the marshland. just that 15000-foot area. >> and when we brought this resolution of, one of our council members was a word about the scientific criticism of the berms. she weighed in on that but i came right back, we both came right back and made the statement that, that is not true for every area. the berms will work somewhere. that criticism has been because they are doing everything globally. it will work somewhere. >> when the president said we're going to have a roundtable discussion in the next three days, hancock and within 24 hours i will give you my answer. i said, that is fine, mr. president. what we heard was a bunch of naysayers halfway through. i one up and said, this is a dog and pony show. i am one to call the white house. i left the meeting and went outside and had an interview with somebody. i went back and, he called interrission, he said, we're going to give the parish presidents and the governor a chance to speak right after this hearing so that we can hear their side. i said, i

it is kept out of the marshland. just that 15000-foot area. >> and when we brought this resolution of, one of our council members was a word about the scientific criticism of the berms. she weighed in on that but i came right back, we both came right back and made the statement that, that is not true for every area. the berms will work somewhere. that criticism has been because they are doing everything globally. it will work somewhere. >> when the president said we're going to have a roundtable discussion in the next three days, hancock and within 24 hours i will give you my answer. i said, that is fine, mr. president. what we heard was a bunch of naysayers halfway through. i one up and said, this is a dog and pony show. i am one to call the white house. i left the meeting and went outside and had an interview with somebody. i went back and, he called interrission, he said, we're going to give the parish presidents and the governor a chance to speak right after this hearing so that we can hear their side. i said, i

we all from the coast of lanfranc to give them a fair chance at keeping it out of the marshland. >> and not just the parish's impacted to date, bbt the one to the west to make sure that they're protected as well. >> thank you, gentlemen. >> a couple of quick points. i am anxious to move to the next panel. the berms in place now, there was a directive. i think we should give credit where it is due. we may be able to afford to build a berm from florida to texas. that is something that the other states are going have to discuss. secondly, senator nelson, i agree with you about the military. but the coast guard is the military. they were in the department of defense until we move them when we created the department of homeland security. this is an issue that we have to discuss in terms of how to figure it out. whether the coast guard should stand down for the navy or the army, i do not know. the resolution today is the command structure. finally i would like to ask this question. mark, could you just briefly say how you are spending the $25 billion. did ny of it go to the parishes? if not,

the marshland treatments are the right one. if their wildlife sites of concern, we address that. if theee are archaeological sites that need to be protected, we keep people away from them. it is the right approach for the right place at the right time. those are the aspects of shoreline assessment. >> are you with bp? >> i am from bp. i've only worked for bp for about three years. i have 20 years of process management. i am based in the u.k. and i'm out of a corporate crisis headquarters. i help bp across the board on+ dealing with all of these crisis. i am one of the small teams of how bp operates. i've had 20 years of responding to oil spills in about 26 countries all around the world. america is just one area i am working. it's important made sure that the short line -- it's important to make sure that the shoreline is taking care of. each week you get a different challenge. if you want to get a summer some of the challenges, logistics'. getting people out into the field from the truck to a vote -- from the truck to the boat. it takes hours to get people to a location. the key

come in and immediately ta action to protect thewildlif the estuariesnd the important march -- marshlands and three days after the oil began gush into the f, this adminition hadut british petroleum in charge and said you take care of it. we don't have your expertise. you take care of . we hear mr. gibbs sayi, maybe secretary salar, but also the administratiowa poting6 c1 administration was pointing out we hav the boots in thflt. in a hring in natural resources, asd, what does thamean? the deputy secreta othe nterior under salazar, others there ion't feel they ge an appropriatenswer. i still don't know what that a we got our boot on their throa. i rather your boot be down there in louis and in flidaand making sure that e oil is not getting to t s. but when in our hearing were asked aboulouisana wanting to set ltle barr islandouthere so the oil wouldn't get into the sensitive areas and kill the ldfe and ki off the livingor so many thousands of people, we were tod in that hearing,e had th under discussn. l was gushing and stl and this administration h those things under discuion. we're lkg a

barriers, which is labor intensive and costly but certainly warranted to try to protect the beaches and marshland. some things will work and some things won't work. some things will be feasible and some things will not. we have seen the largest mobilization of spill response equipment that i have ever seen, and it is not going to stop all the oil. but it has held back a major part of it to this stage. we may well see techniques like the lady described tried before it is over. host: according to resources that this is almost as big as the exxon valdiz spill, 11 million gallons of oil in that spill. in your view, has it topped that yet? guest: uh, if it hasn't yet, it probably will. we really don't know the flow rate. the government has estimateded 12,000 to 19,000 barrels a day. but it is really difficult to tell until they get a meter on wellhe wellhead. we won't know the flow rate and without knowing the flow rate we can't know the volume of oil that has entered the environment. in very rough terms, the water depth, which makes well control so difficult may prove in the long run to have been a b

. >> marshland oil, maybe things with reeds. >> anything with oil on it has to be disposed of in accordance with federal law. >> it is not a cost-effective -- not cost effective to even try to do that with the deposits? . . >> can you discuss the benefits of asking oil companies to drill simultaneously? would that help -- help in the current situation? >> i have not had that discussion. i think that would be a legitimate point to put in front of the commission. >> that would fall under the regulatory framework that the commission will evaluate in order to determine the best way to operate in of fail-safe atmosphere moving forward. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> president obama says his administration is focusing on improving the claims process as it was affected by the oil spill. he spoke briefly with reporters after a cabinet meeting. >> i just completed a meeting with the cabinet that is in charge of dealing with in the deepwater horizon oil spill. we activated 15 agencies for what is now the l

there are marshlands -- we used to call them flats.shop mysteries -- a day are fish nursery's -- they are fish nurseries. they lay their eggs up there -- just everything. the entire ecosystem comes from not gulf area. i have heard nobody -- from that fulg are -- gulf area. i have heard nobody talked about putting skimmer's out beyond that depth -- skimmers out beyond that debt. all of that stuff will be dead for decades. guest: that is a very good point. the gold is a huge nursery for various kinds of wildlife and fish -- gulf is a huge error sri for various kinds of wildlife and fish. they are trying to -- a huge nursery for various kinds of wildlife and fish. they're trying to get the well contained. we have to protect those as much as we can. those marshes and the fish nursery's and et cetera. the local people -- i look on this as something the local, state, and federal people need to work on together. host: we have been traveling down to the gulf coast. here are some pictures you can see from our crews. workers are trying to clean

coastal plan is that, i do look at the oil that has washed up on that beach, it is kept out of the marshland. it is just that 1005-foot area. -- is just that one off five- foot area. >> the burns will work, but the criticism is because they're doing everything globally. >> when the president said we will have a roundtable discussion in the next two days to three years, within 24 hours, i will give you my word, i said, ok, mr. president. halfway through, i said this was a dog and pony show. i am going to call the white house. i left the meeting and i went outside and interview with somebody. i got my head together and i came back in. he said, look, we will give the priors president and the governor a chance to speak right after this hearing so that we can hear their side. i said, i am ok with that. we all spoke. at the end of that, the secretary stood up and gave her point of view. i ask, are you for our it against the burns. she said, i am ok with it. i will take that as a desperate for the rest of the panel, are you for or against it? anybody who is against it, raise your hand. thad allen,

if we have to do it on land, it is easier to do it on the beach, that in the marshland. >> they say -- [inaudible] after a week of tests. can yoyou comment on that? >> there have been some anecdotal reports of underwater oil booms. -- plumes. the administrator of noaa has put together a large area sampling plan to form a consortium with universities in the area to get data from different areas and test the hydrocarbons in the water at different depths. it is being done right now within a five and 10 mile radius of the oil platforms and a place for the recovery is going on. -- place where the recovery is going on. those vessels are returning to port. others are going out. i do not want to put a timeline on it, but they will be putting together a profile based on all of that data so we can understand the picture for the entire gulf area and what kind of hydrocarbons are present and where they come up. they will have a general model. >> any more questions from the room? working?the cap seem to be >> yes, with a couple of caveat. we put it down and there were four vents -- of caveats. we

louisiana out of tulane university, they looked at where the oil with the this person had come into the marshland and it is almost impossible to get the stuff up. it is like crazy glue. host: what i looking forward to hearing? caller: that he is going to order as commander in chief of the epa to cease using that this person. the epa released on the website what is in the stuff. if you go to aep and.gov/bpsil pill -- if you've got 500 pounds of that stuff on the ground, it is a superfund site. that stuff should not be coming up. i don't like the birds, either. i wish he would tell us he will stop any of the controlled burns that put all of the toxic smoke in the air. and with the dispersants, it forces a toxic cloud above ground that can come all the way where you are sittinn in washington journal. host: appreciate your comments. donald is standing by in detroit. thank you for waiting. what do you want to hear tonight? caller: i want to hear what he is going to do to stop the oil leak. it is an absolute catastrophe. not listening to the politicians on the other side, the right. because they are ta

and that were small enough, yet big enough to give us a fair chance of keeping the oil out of our marshlands. >> i hope the administration is listening so that they can get some people on this and get that approved. >> the parishes to the west need protective measures so that of a hurricane comes through they are protected as well. >> just a couple of quick points. the burns that are in place now ber -- ms -- berms that are in place now are there because of the president directed they be put there. i think we should give obama credit where credit is due. the coast guard is the military. they used to be in the department of defense until we in congress moved them when we created the department of homeland security, so this is an issue we have to discuss about now how to figure this out, whether the coast guard should be considered the navy or the army. i do not know, but we have resolved today that the command structures are broken. to fix this, we need more discussion. finally, and didn't bp give every state $25 million? and if so, could yyu just briefly say how you are spending that money?

make these firms and that enough, yet big enough to give us a fair chance keeping the oilutf our marshlands >> i hope the admistration is listening so that they can get e on this and get that approved. >> the parishes to the west need protective measures so th of a hurricane comeshrou they are protected as well. >>ust a couple of qui points. the burns that are in place now ber -- ms -- berms that are in place now are there because of the president directethey b put there. i think we should give obama credit where credit is due. thcoast guard is the military. they useto be in the dertment of fense until we in congress moved them when we reated the department of homeland security, so this is an issue we have to discuss about now hoto fure this out, whether the coast gua should be consered the navy or the army. i do not know, but weve resolved today that the command structures are broken. to fix this, we ned more discussion. finally, and didn't bp give every state $25 million? and if so, could yyuust briefly say how you are spending that money? di everyone get thatmount, mississippi, alabama a

. >> marshland oil and reeds. >> anything that got oil on it, it buc becomes, it has to be disposed of in accordance with federal haw. it is not cost effective to do that? >> some is done through incineration. if it could be reclimbed, that happens. it gets to the point where it is just debris, then we dispose of that according to federal guidelines. e.p.a. is consulting with us and making sure of that. we go out and visit the federal sites, one thing we look at is waste disopposal and decontam mation and every base has a station ready for boom or boots or clothing, when you go in this, it is put into a tank and the oil is decanted and recycled. >> sam and enthen we should go to this meeting. >> just a quick question. can you discuss the benefits in the shortcomings going forward of requiring oil companies to drill relief wells simultaneously to the production of pill. would that have helped in the current situation, had b.p. actually had that up on line before the spill took place? >> i have not had that discussion. i think that would be a legitimate point to be raised and put in fron

the marshland treatments are the right ones. for example, if theee are archaeological sites that need to e protected, we keep people away from them. those are the source of critical aspects of shoreline assessment in one quick word. across steel >> are you personally with bp? >> i've only worked for bp for three years. my background is crisis management. i am based in the u.k., and i am out of the corporate headquarters crisis. essentially i am one of the smmll teams that determines how they operate. that is based on 20 years of responding tt oil spills in about 26 countries all over the world. pmerica is just one place i+ worked in. i have been pulled in to make sure the shoreline program is focused and we deliver. >> what is the biggest challenge? >> each week we get a different challenge. if you want to give a summary,+ logistics. it takes hours to get people to heat. there are logistical challenges to get to do your job. i think that is probably one of the key ones. if you're talking about oil on show ouore, it is the marshe

we are going south on highway 56 to the coastal marshlands. there are a couple of irina's and jump off points for oil and gas service industry companies. down here is louisiana university marine consortium facility that is right before you get to the end of the road down here. >> can you just point out areas that have been hardest hit? >> grand isle has been getting oil on the beach. right past grand isle they are+ getting oil on the beach. some oil is starting to show up on the barrier islands. of course we are getting some over in the mouth of the river. as the crow flies, you can see that is not very far. >> how many miles is that? >> i don't know the exact mileage. i would say probably 25 miles to the mouth of the river. that is a guess. >> when you hear about oil getting into the marshes, where is that happening? >> that is happening at the mouth of the river. they are getting some sheen into the inner marsh of to what they call merle grove, which is up here. -- myrtle grove. we are getting erosion of a lot of these wetlands and marshes.

i have seen firsthand the the decay in the marshland and heard of the birds and the fish and phe dolphins that have already been killed by oil. we have also heard reports that there may be plumes of sub surface oil posing an insidious threat to deep sea coral and other marine life, oil that will not make its presence known by the clear signs of tar balls or oil birds ut which could nevertheless harm generations of awe quatic life. reearkably last week bp executive tonyyhayward claimed that bp didn't have enough resources in its tool kit to handle the gulf oil disaster. that is why this week i will introduce the oil s.o.s. bill that will requure companies to fund research and development for upgraded safety and cleaa-up tools so that in the future companies like bp will never again be relying on 30-year-old technologies to deal with 21st century problems. that is unfair to the families who must suffer the consequences of the lack of preparation by bp. thank you mr. chairman. >> thank you, mr. markey. >> the gentlelady from colorado, -popening statement, please. >> in late august 2005 a per

thank you for all you do a for appreciating how valuable that marshland is.gton, d.c., republicanine. cal, good morning. caller: hi, goning. i have a question, b fir i ju wanted to just comment. with the exxon valdez, inow + they did an instigatiin, and fr the very beginning, you know, news cameorwarddthat this was, you know, related to the incompee of the cin on board and previous convictionhead for drinking whilonuty. what dwe knows far ashis investigation goes? what was the cause was iterrorism? was was this terrorism? it was as a man-made accident? guest: i think that at some of these was basically an accident -- that the exxon valdez was basically an accident. for one reason or another, the reason these happened -- the exxon bodies was so important because it was a massive super tanker. it was a very fragile, christine, alaskan environment. it was the juxtaposition of this huge disaster in that environment. one of my colleagues has a vial of sediment from prince william sound that was collected a decade after the exxon valdez. when you take it off, the o

people look at the marshlands and the sea grass. we know, living here, that these are nursery's, habitats, -- nurseries, habitats, rookeries -- a lot of marine life, mammals, birds come into this region. these marsh grasses mean life to the fisheries. you cannot just say, it is only going to impact grass. it is impacting the entire ecosystem, of which people are just one component. we need to see to it that we learn lessons from this. this has happened in other places before. this golf disaster. -- gulf disaster. it is sad to say that, you know, today, it is business as usual. look at what happened here. when will it not be enough? -- enough be enough? when will we stop and say, let's learn from this. let's put in the work. let's put in the safeguards. we need to the under -- we need we cannot allow ourselves to be hostage to one source of energy. oil is included in that, but we should not look only to oil. what is happening in the gulf right now is a testament. >> [inaudible] we are fortunate we get to live here. >> every day. some