Nation's frustration grows as oil continues to flow from sea floor

Venice, Louisiana (News Today) - On the 50th day since the beginning of the massive oil disaster, advocacy group MoveOn says it will hold nationwide vigils Tuesday night to call for stepped up efforts to stop the spill.

The group called for a "major public outcry" and created a section on its website for people to search for vigils in their area by typing in their zip codes.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration -- reacting to criticism that it has not been aggressive enough -- continued to work on turning that perception.

On Monday, Obama delivered a blunt defense of his administration's response to the spill, telling NBC's "Today" show that he has held meetings with experts and has learned "whose ass to kick."

"I don't sit around talking to experts because this is a college seminar," the president said in an interview scheduled to air Tuesday. "We talk to these folks because they potentially have the best answers, so I know whose ass to kick."

The president is also endorsing plans to lift the cap on damages that oil companies must pay for a spill, currently set at $75 million.

But with losses mounting among hoteliers, fishermen and others whose livelihoods have been curtailed by the spill, frustration is "rapidly escalating" along the Gulf Coast, said Kelby Linn, a real estate agent and Chamber of Commerce official on Alabama's Dauphin Island.

Linn told a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee Monday that the amount of money BP has paid local residents for their losses has typically been about $5,000, a sum he dismissed as "a marketing ploy." Businesses like his vacation rental company are borrowing money to pay their overhead costs, which he called "the only way we're going to keep our business alive."

"We do not feel that BP is going to be stepping up to the plate," he said.

Workers scraped oil off beaches and skimmed it out of waterways from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle on Monday, but the impact of the Gulf oil disaster will be felt for years, authorities said.

Restoring wetlands and wildlife habitats along the Gulf Coast will take far beyond the time needed to cap the ruptured undersea well at the heart of the disaster, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the head of the federal government's response effort, told reporters at the White House.

"Dealing with the oil spill on the surface is going to go on for a couple of months. After that it'll be taken care of," Allen said. "Long-term issues of restoring the environment and the habitats and stuff will be years."

Workers involved in the cleanup effort face possible long-term health hazards without proper protective gear, and the region's environment may retain hazardous chemicals left behind by the spill, witnesses told members of Congress during a hearing in Louisiana.

Dead wildlife has now been reported in the region, and Allen said Monday that patches of shoreline totaling roughly 120 miles long have now been affected by the spill. The spill has now broken up into a series of pools, ranging from 20 to 100 yards to several miles long.

Oil company BP has managed to place a loose-fitting cap over the ruptured well, 5,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf and about 40 miles off Louisiana. The amount of crude collected Sunday through that cap increased to roughly 466,000 gallons (11,100 barrels), according to estimates from BP and Allen, the federal government's response manager for the spill.

The gusher won't be completely shut down until BP completes drilling a relief well, a process that is expected to last until August.

Under federal law, BP -- which owns the damaged well at the heart of the catastrophe -- is responsible for paying for the cleanup. President Obama warned the company against "nickel-and-diming" communities affected by the largest oil spill in U.S. history.

Allen, Obama's point man on the spill response, is expected to brief reporters again Tuesday morning about the clean up effort

But for many in the area, what had spilled already has made their future bleak.

"My concern is after everything is cleaned up, if they can clean it all up, and they leave, what is our business going to be like?" asked Dudley Gaspard, owner of the Sand Dollar Marina and Hotel on hard-hit Grand Isle, Louisiana. "Oil's coming in pretty heavy, into the marsh area now, and we're not sure -- we're kind of in the dark."

Source : CNN

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