and we monitor that through our partners at noaa.and their scientific support coordinators help us anticipate, and we generally have enough of a projection so that we can take the necessary steps. all of that said, florida, under the federal on-scene coordinator who will be designated today in miami to oversee the coordination of all operations on the florida coasts, has been provided discussion, information and guidance to prepare themselves. they also have contingency plans that will be brought to bear when the time is right. >> so the worst case would be florida, mississippi, louisiana, texas? >> well, look, i think given where the oil is and the calls that the president made, we're taking the precaution that based on sea and wind conditions, this could go -- you know, again, it could -- what these guys are prepared to do is act on the worst-case scenario. the action on the ground is to ensure that that doesn't come to pass. and that's what we're working on right now. >> robert, can i answer -- >> oh, i'm sorry -- >> one of the re

you take issue with the data that comes from noaa? >> guest: well, no. the data is correct.i mean, we just have the climate-gate scandal that just happened over in britain. they were suppressing numbers and suppressing dissecting views. and the institute out at nasa was taking their lead from the university and their climate research unit. the left has set up this bogie man that only scientists believe in global warming. and i point out in my global warming ghoul's chapter that's thought true. a "new york times" reporter that caller referred to -- he misrepresented the quote. the reporter says that there are scientists on both sides with advanced degrees who disagree. senator jim inhofe himself has a list of more than 650 scientists from around the country who disagree with the premise that man is responsible for warming the planet. in the last at the point years we have a cooling trend that is taking place. warming and cooling has always been around. it's called temperature and climate. but the fact the left will say that man in all his finiteness could actually warm this p

the original estimates by noaa were that the leak was about a thousand barrels a day. now, understanding that this is... this well is in 5,000 feet of water, you can not get an accurate idea of the release rate. so the original estimate was a thousand barrels a day. now based on what you can see on the water, noaa scientists have basically said that they think it's more like 5,000 and we think it's somewhere in that range. but, again, one of the challenges that we're facing is that this well is at 5,000 feet of water so a lot of what we are doing to fight this is unprecedented. >> brown: and what about the situation at the rig itself in terms of stopping the leakage? was there any advances in that today? and why is that part of it going so slowly? >> again, well, we are working 24 hours a day. and, again, we have some of the greatest science minds available trying to come up with new ways to try to close... to try to close this... the well and secure the well so that there's no more oil leaking into the water. we have several things under way, one of which is that we h

noaa transparency mr. president is the key here. home and there are agreed upon discussion draft 100 percent of all trades and the swaps and derivatives market would have been out in the open and available to regulators to review and real time. unfortunately this language is not part of the a bill with and we're faced with derivatives for product crafted without input from republicans. derivatives product there reflects agreement between two democratic committee chairman and the administration. republicans are not even invited into the room to provide input. the product they developed will have many unfortunate consequences for main street businesses with that have nothing to do with creating this financial meltdown. i fear of unintended consequences resulting from applying complicated regulations too broadly and will subject american businesses to more risk and not less. for example, this legislation would force the foreign credit system institutions to run their interest-rate swaps the clearing house which will result in addi

and we monitor that through our partners at noaa. and their scientific support coordinators help us anticipate, and we generally have enough of a projection so that we can take the necessary steps. all of that said, florida, under the federal on-scene coordinator who will be designated today in miami to oversee the coordination of all operations on the florida coasts, has been provided discussion, information and guidance to prepare themselves. they also have contingency plans that will be brought to bear when the time is right. >> so the worst case would be florida, mississippi, louisiana, texas? >> well, look, i think given where the oil is and the calls that the president made, we're taking the precaution that based on sea and wind conditions, this could go -- you know, again, it could -- what these guys are prepared to do is act on the worst-case scenario. the action on the ground is to ensure that that doesn't come to pass. and that's what we're working on right now. >> robert, can i answer -- >> oh, i'm sorry -- >> one of the r

>> somebody asked that of a noaa scientist on a conference call. the scientist said he would be cautious. that takes you back. >> that gets your attention. >> reporter: it does. he said the reason is scientists don't know a lot about what's actually in the air. they don't know how much ash is in the air. they don't know the size of the ash. they don't know how high it's in the atmosphere, so all of that is a very imprecise science here that they are dealing with. what they do know is when that gritty ash, all those tiny particles of glass and rock get into jet engines they can cause big problems. they can cause the engine to fail. there have been from about 100 to 125 incidents since 1980 with that. planes do have radar that detects small particles, up to three centimeters. the kind we are talking about here is like talcum powder. it's that fine. you're talking about 0.01 millimeter. that's what makes it so difficult to determine when it's safe to fly. >> we are all feeling our way through this the first night of restored flights in europe. we'll s

noaa has provided estimates based on the length of time.r incident. what i use that kind of language or threat this kind of numbers, i think that itself tells you. >> officials have complained it has been at nine days and they're frustrated with the pace of the federal response. >> bp is the responding party. we are overseeing them, working closely with all of the state and local partners. again, the key thing is the inability of bp, forever -- through whatever methodology they are using, to get this closed. >> the general response -- >> let us understand, as for the example earlier with the exxon valdez, the law was passed that to not allow an oil company to do what had been done and hand the bill to you and me. it is now the responsibility of the oil company, in this case bp, british petroleum. but understand over the course of the past several days, the situation has changed several times. the well was initially recapped. then it was not capped, we found as of yesterday additional breaches. our response has been commensurate with that ea

make sure that you have your noaa radio on before you go to bed.ix miles east of coleman, alabama. this continues to move quickly up to the north and the east and to put it into perspective for you here's huntsville in birmingham, just down do the south, so kind of sandwiched about halfway in between the of 2 of those. we also have a very intense line north and west of nashville. just new tornado warnings issued here. doppler radar indicated near the state line, moving over towards kentucky, and we have seen this continuing throughout much of central kentucky at this hour. now, we have a high risk of these tornados continuing, these large, violent tornados that stay on the ground for a very long period of time and so it's this big purple area, mostly where we have the watches now that we think that that greatest threat will continue. this will move eastward through the overnight and through the day tomorrow, we'll have that risk of severe weather, say, from parts of pennsylvania in the mid-atlantic states down through the carolinas and even into pa

doug helton, the incident operations coordinator for noaa, the national oceanic and atmospheric administration. and nancy kinner, an environmental engineer and co-director of the coastal response research center at the university of new hampshire. thank you both for being with us. doug helton with n.o.a.a., i'm going to start with you. i think michelle wie got a sense looking at a diagram which you might not have been able to see of what happened under the water but just so we're clear, why has it been so difficult to get to the site of these leaks? >> well, this-- this release is over a mile deep, and in a tangle of steel pipe, that's the remarpd of drill riser that was severed when the rig sank, so it's a very complicated situation on the sea floor. >> woodruff: and, difficulty with visibility and what else? >> it's visibility in terms of depth, in terms of the ability of these underwater vehicles to manipulate devices that they need to. it's a very challenging place to be working. it's very much like you're working on the moon or something. >> woodruff: and, just to try to simplify what the

have the weather channel on or noaa weather radio. things move in very quickly. >> also weather.com. >>> to politics now, the government of arizona, the governor signed a bill into law yesterday which means in about 91 days it will be against state law to be in the u.s. illegally. governor brewer says federal government inaction forced her hand. the president is sympathetic with that sentiment but doesn't agree with arizona's solution. >> failure to act responsibly at the federal level will only open the door to irresponsibility by others. that includes, for example, the recent efforts in arizona which threaten to undermine basic notions of fairness that we cherish as americans, as well as the trust between police and their communities that is so crucial to keeping us safe. >> expect some good conversation here from my boys, msnbc political analyst pat buchanan and democratic strategist peter fenn. good morning, guys. >> morning, alex. >> morning, alex. >> pat, isn't the president right in this sense? this gives the police the right t

noaa has said this will affect about 40 miles of coastline, like i said, in louisiana and florida.y and can affect those ecosystems and the people who live nearby. >> okay. daniel stone from "newsweek." thank you very much. >> thanks, alex. >>> people in mississippi are reeling from a tornado that suffered a large swath of destruction. >>> and president obama and the memorial for the miners.

. >> woodruff: how does this compare with previous spills you've had to deal with and others at noaa in. >> i was the science coordinator with the exxon val degrees. we're not into that range yet. a little bit depends on the longevity of this spill. no question, any time you have a spill where you're releasing 42,000 gallons a day in this country a major spill is in the 50,000-100,000 gallon range so we're already there. but it has the potential to be a very, very much more significant spill than it currently is. the longer it takes to have the blow-out preventer to work. as you mentioned the weeks and potentially months for relief wells, then we begin to get a more and more significant event. >> woodruff: david kennedy with the national ocean service, thank you very much. >> thank you. you're welcome. >> ifill: now, with the other news of the day, here's hari sreenivasan in our newsroom. >> sreenivasan: major cleanup efforts were under way across the south today after tornadoes ripped through the region over the weekend. mississippi was hit the hardest, with ten people killed and hu

those of you that have a noaa weather radio, have it turned on and ready in case a warning is issuedhe severe weather here and i'll let you know if you get tornado warnings throughout the day. >> we'll check back. >>> rescuers have suspended their search for 11 oil rig workers missing in the gulf of mexico after this. the coast guard says it is now unreasonable to expect that any of them survived. the search covered 4,200 square miles over three days. even though the search is suspended, the case is not closed. >> we have not 100% certainty accounted for all the lifeboats. we don't know what was launched from the rig and what might still be with the rig. that's going to be something that we'll continue to do as part of the casualty investigation, and as the captain has mentioned, we can also re-resurrect the search efforts. all the information we have this week leads us to believe that these 11 members were on the rig. >> more than 100 crew members managed to make it off the platform after tuesday's massive explosion. four of them were critically injured but they are doing better. >>

we have a unified command, including noaa scientists. our best estimate was 1,000 barrels a day at first. as we began to gather more data, we revised that number to 5,000 barrels a day. that did not indicate a change in the amount of flow. it indicated a change in the estimate of the flow rate. this is highly in precise. -- imprecise. we continue to respond to about your response -- prepared to deal with that, in the eventuality that the rate is higher. >> [inaudible] >> state your affiliation. >> could this affect oil production? could there be a halt to future oil production? is that a consideration? especially in deep water? >> the oil and gas -- which this nation currently depends on -- very much comes from the gulf of mexico. about 1/3 of the domestically- produced oil and gas resources come from this region. we want to make sure that those operations are safe. we have dispatched the inspections to do what we have to do to make sure those are operating safely. the president this morning directed the department of interior and the se

the coast guard and noaa revised their estimate of the leak. they now say it's not 42,000 gallons per day, but 210,000 gallons a day. imagine if the leak continues for two months, which seems like a real possibility at this point. in two months it will have exceeded the amount of oil spilled in the exxon valdez disaster. well, let's keep something in mind. the exxon valdez was a tanker with a finite amount of oil aboard. this is virtually a bottomless pit of oil. when asked to compare this spill to previous spills, the coast guard compared it to the ixtoc 1 spill. on june 3 of 1979, an exploratory well called the

let me also tell you that noaa tells us that 72% of the time the prevailing winds in this region flow towards the coast. 72% of the time. if there is a catastrophe, if there is an oil spill related to this site, the likelihood of reaching the shores of new jersey, delaware, maryland, virginia, the outerbanks are real -- are real. here's the mouth of the chesapeake bay. 50 miles away from this site. the chesapeake bay, as the presiding officer knows, we're struggling to deal with the cleanup of the bay. it's hard enough just dealing with the known pollutants that come in from farming and from development and from storm runoff. put into that a potential oil spill, and it would set us back decades in trying to restart our oyster crops and help our watermen with the blue crabs and to deal with the returning of the rockfish. it's too great of a risk. as secretary salazar said, there are certain parts of this country that are just so environmentally sensitive, they're not worth the risk. the west coast of the united states, the north atlantic, and i tell you that the coast around the chesap

i have dispatched secretaries of interior and homeland security as well as the epa, and the noaa administratorto the gulf coast to make sure we cannot seem to do everything necessary to respond to this event. i expect reports from the ground today. bp is ultimately responsible paying the cost for the cleanup operations. we are fully prepared to meet our responsibilities to any of the communities. we have been working close with the authorities since the day of the explosion. there are now five staging areas. 1900 federal response personnel are in the area. more than 300 response vessels and aircraft are on the scenes. we have to wonder 17,000 feet of protected -- we have to wonder 17,000217,000 of boon and more n the way. we will make sure that any of these is going forward have those safeguards. we have dispatched teams to the gulf. all rigs and platforms to address safety security. but it seems to believe domestic oil production is an important part of our overall strategy. it must be done responsibly for the safety of our workers and our environment. local economies of the people of the gul

inouye: rescinding unobligated balances in noaa, national office of atmospheric administration, couldcreate a minimum six months' gap of coverage for the geostationary weather satellite system which focuses directly over the united states and constantly and accurately monitors storm conditions over -- and over 200 employees would lose their jobs. the senator from oklahoma argues that if funding is not spent immediately then it is not necessarily. this reasoning is irresponsible when it comes to overseeing our taxpayers' dollars and the capitalization of large projects like ships, hospitals, and satellites. i'm certain everyone in this chamber knows that a ship is not built in a year and i hope everyone knows that a hospital is not built and equipped in a year. and i hope that everyone knows that satellites are not built and launched every year. in addition to the potential impact on large procurements, this amendment could impact the funding of programs that congress voted on and agreed to just a few months ago. the impact of these cuts could have significant consequences for many cri

today we speak with second prize winner noaa gray, a 12th gray. >> thanks for having me here today. host: >> why did you select this topic? >> i was in washington, d.c. this summer and the white house has interested me. so i ig if yurd, i walked by the white house one day and saw these protestors there and said, you know, these people would be neat, you know, to tell a story about them. so that's why. and i think it's so important that freedom of speech and freedom of assembly is such a gift. that's why i chose to expand on that. >> how many days did you spend at the white house gathering video? >> i spent a little less than a month. i went there almost every day after work. and spent anywhere from an hour to three hours there. so i was working with somewhere around 30 to 40 hours of footage. so it was quite a challenge to get it down to an 8-minute movie. >> tell us about the people that you interviewed and why they were there. >> there's so many interesting people outside of the white house. and i spoke to many, many people out there. and there are continuous protesters or some of

769, 97, 818, 819, all nominations on the secretary's desk in the coast guard foreign service and noaa, the nominations be confirmed en bloc, the motions to reconsider be laid on the table en bloc, any statements appear at the appropriate place in the record as if rerksd the president be immediately notified of the senate's, a the senate then resume legislative session. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. mr. leahy: i thank the chair, the presiding officer, i thank the senator from missouri. mr. bond: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from missouri. mr. bond: after the actions of some bad apples on wall street, there's no doubt that we need financial reform to prevent another credit crisis. it's disappointing the bipartisan consensus on a financial reform package was not reached in committee and instead the majority chose a go-it-alone pproach. i hope this is a process that democrats truly want to be bipartisan because my constituents had some good ideas about how to enact real reform that will not stifle economic growth and activ

>> noaa. >> how about the other institutions? i think that is getting lost in some of these broad sweeping delays on foreclosures, the fact are a number of properties also swept up in that so communities are being harmed by the fact there is a vacant properties sitting there and can't move the process ford and i don't believe that was the intent but that's one of the casualties of the process. >> so it does have tendency to slow the foreclosure? >> yes. >> will the gentleman yield? i wasn't calling for -- mine was contingent. were the first is modified and the second -- that doesn't impose modification requirement. they could do that in and out of it. >> so it was still be voluntary on everyone's part? is that correct? >> well, as i understand unless we change the law it is voluntary i voted for bankruptcy but it did not win his. >> we have a tendency to all was said and say you have a commitment to do something and i didn't know whether these letters -- when you say assurances i don't know what that means going forward. >> the g