As new hearings start on oil disaster, Obama to meet victims' families

(News Today) - President Obama will host the families of the 11 workers killed in the BP oil rig explosion at the White House on Thursday.

"Obviously, the president will express his heartfelt condolences for the families of the 11 that lost their lives the very first night of the explosion," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said Wednesday. "I think he is eager to discuss with them what their family was telling them about safety conditions and what type of changes can and must be made in the regulatory framework to ensure that deepwater drilling that goes forward is done in a way that is safe and not life-threatening."

The meeting with the families comes as the administration sends Labor Secretary Hilda Solis to New Orleans to meet with fishermen affected by the gushing oil and as Capital Hill opens another series of hearings on the mater.

Obama has announced plans to visit the Gulf Coast again next week. His itinerary includes stops in Mississippi, Alabama and Florida, three of the four states affected by the disaster. It will be his fourth trip to the region since the gusher began in late April.

Federal authorities, in the meantime, have given BP until Friday to devise contingency plans for the continued collection of gushing oil into a containment cap in the event of an operational failure or severe weather.

In a letter written Tuesday, the government's on-scene administrator, Coast Guard Rear Adm. James Watson, instructed BP Chief Operating Officer Doug Suttles to lay out a process for the recovery of oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

"BP shall provide the plans for these parallel, continuous, and contingency collection processes, including an implementation timeline, within 72 hours of receiving this letter," Watson wrote. "Current collection efforts may not be interrupted to implement these plans."

The deadline came as Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Wednesday that slightly more than 15,000 barrels of oil -- more than 630,000 gallons -- had been recovered from the ruptured BP well in the 24-hour period ending Tuesday at midnight.

BP said it has collected about 57,500 barrels (2.4 million gallons) of oil since last week, when it placed a loose-fitting containment cap atop its ruptured well.

In addition to the letter to Suttles, Allen has written to BP Chief Executive Officer Tony Hayward asking for the development of better redundancies in the company's short- and long-term containment plans.

Allen highlighted concerns over BP's ability to effectively process damage claims associated with the Gulf disaster and asked Hayward to provide more detailed information, including claim numbers and personal identifiers such as the last four digits of Social Security numbers.

"Access to this level of detail is critical to informing the public as to how BP is meeting its obligations as a responsible corporation," Allen wrote.

For his part, Suttles denied Wednesday that BP has ordered cleanup workers not to talk to reporters.

"Recent media reports have suggested that individuals involved in the cleanup operation have been prohibited from speaking to the media, and this is simply untrue," he said in a letter e-mailed to CNN by a company spokesman.

Other correspondence from BP echoed Suttles sentiments.

"BP has not enforced this provision in the Master Vessel Charter Agreement for the Vessels of Opportunity Program, which might have been construed to limit individual communications," BP spokesman Mark Proegler said. "Newer agreements contain no restrictions, and BP has agreed not to enforce this provision for existing agreements which contain this language".

Asked about reports from BP employees that they had been forbidden to talk to reporters, Suttles said that it might take some time before all 25,000 people working for BP are made aware of the policy.

On Capitol Hill Wednesday, oil drilling issues took center stage on Day 51 of the disaster as lawmakers debated everything from safety to cleanup to liability.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar defended the Obama administration's six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling, which has come under fire from critics who argue that the drilling is vital for reducing the dependence on foreign oil and key to the region's economic health.

"It was our view that we press the pause button ... not the stop button," Salazar told the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. "It's a pause button so that we can make sure that we move forward with OCS (outer continental shelf) drilling -- that it can be done in a way that is protective of people and protective of the environment as well."

Salazar and Deputy Interior Secretary David Hayes said government scientists estimate that the spill's flow rate after last week's cut of the well's riser pipe increased by 4 percent to 5 percent. That's well below an increase of as much as 20 percent that administration officials had indicated could happen.

As the environmental crisis worsens, states are tracking the disaster's health impact, including respiratory and skin irritation problems in Louisiana and Alabama, health officials said.

The Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals is aware of 71 cases of oil spill-related illness as of Wednesday, said state health officer Dr. Jimmy Guidry. Of them, 50 involved workers on oil rigs or who participated in cleanup efforts, and 21 came from the general public.

Symptoms included throat irritation, cough, chest pain, headaches, and shortness of breath, he said. Eight workers were hospitalized, for an average of one day each, the department said.

In Alabama, 15 cases of illness have been reported, said Dr. Don Williamson, state health officer.

Florida has received no reports of illness connected to the oil spill, said health department spokeswoman Susan Smith.

Nor has Texas, a spokeswoman for the Department of State Health Services said.

Meanwhile, top congressional Democrats renewed their push Wednesday for legislation that would remove oil spill liability caps -- a move some Republicans warned would lead to stronger monopolies in the energy sector while increasing U.S. dependence on foreign oil sources.

Among other things, Democrats are targeting the 1990 Oil Pollution Act, which could limit BP's liability for economic damages caused by the Gulf disaster to $75 million.

"If you or I ... got into an accident that we caused, (we'd be) responsible for all the damages," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee. There would be "no caps in that case, and there should be no caps in this case."

Source : CNN

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