The Oil Beneath the Surface
HARRIS: All right, we are expecting a news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on the oil leak in the Gulf. That is expected to happen any moment now. You'll see it live right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. In the meantime, let's get you caught up on our top stories right now. Let's start, yes, in Yemen. Two American tourists are kidnapped in Yemen. Their driver and translator were taken too. Yemeni officials say it happened today near the capital of Sanaa. Their captors say they will hand over the tourists in exchange for a jailed tribesman. And give me a second here, because I've got to take you on a bit of a journey here. I think I've got it. Nope, wrong story. Wrong story. Stay with me. Let's get you to the Gulf. Take a minute. But there we go. And, all right. Anger, of course, growing in the Gulf of Mexico over BP's apparent inability to stop a massive oil spill. BP says it is doing the best it can to cap the leak. Its latest plan is to try to plug the well shut on Wednesday. Now let me take you back. All right, there we go. One more time, all right, and our last top story. Tensions are certainly racheting up between North and South Korea. South Korea is halting trade with the North and adopting a tougher military posture. The North is accused of sinking a South Korean warship in March. President Obama is promising full support to North (ph) Korea. Did you catch the movie "Parent Trap" on television yesterday? It was certainly on my cable system. I don't know about yours. Let me get out of the way here. Lindsay Lohan, man, what a star, right? What happened? A lot, apparently. Just a few moments ago, Lohan was in a Los Angeles courtroom learning what she has to do to stay out of jail. Entertainment correspondent Brooke Anderson is with us from Los Angeles with the very latest. And if I heard correctly, Brooke, she's not going to have to go to jail, correct?</s>BROOKE ANDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not right now, no, she's not, but she needs to behave herself, Tony, or she might in the future. The judge this morning, in about a 15-minute hearing, outlined new terms for Lindsay Lohan's probation. She has to wear a scram alcohol monitoring bracelet, which means, Tony, one drop of alcohol means a one-way ticket to the slammer. So she's got to keep that on at all times. She has to undergo random drug testing. And a full probation violation hearing has been set for July 6th at 8:30 in the morning. But, Tony, she was late. She was late to her court date this morning, if you can believe it. And I was here, you know, for a couple of hours ahead of time. The traffic was light. They had the thing roped off like a red carpet for her. Security was tight. No paparazzi. Nobody could get near her. So they made it very easy for her to pull up to the front and walk in the door. But she arrived about four minutes late. Sat in her car, after that, for a few minutes.</s>HARRIS: Hey, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke, Brooke --</s>ANDERSON: The judge on the bench waiting on her for five minutes.</s>HARRIS: Brooke, I apologize. I apologize. I've got to get us down to Louisiana and there is the Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. My apologies.</s>JANET NAPOLITANO, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: -- some forward motion in the sense of solving the spill. But, in the meantime, we're fighting this oil on the sea. The goal is to either disperse it, to boom it, to burn it, to keep it from reaching landfall, to do everything possible that needs to be done to make sure that BP protects this valuable area. And if it should happen to reach landfall, be it beach or marsh, and to have the wherewithal to get it cleaned up and to make sure that claims are paid. And it's not until this well is sealed and this ocean and this area is cleaned up and the claims are paid that this incident will be deemed over. This is the largest incident response to an oil spill ever in the history of the United States. We have over 22,000 personnel working this spill. Literally hundreds of thousands of feet of boom have been laid. There are over 1,000 vessels that are on the water to skim, to lay boom, to pick up oil, to do what needs to be done to try to keep the ocean as free as possible from the oil. In addition, we have formed an independent estimates group with the best scientists available within the federal government, with peer review by others, to really estimate how much overall oil BP has now spilled into the Gulf of Mexico out of the Deep Horizon spill. That work is ongoing. So we continue to hold BP responsible, as the responsible party. But we are on them, watching them. We know the value of these lands of these parishes. We know, for example, Grand Isle, which is one barrier island that has a large population, 100 people, living on it. We're heartsick that Grand Isle is now at risk. We are going to do everything we can to protect these lands, protect these parishes and to make sure that claims are paid, the oil well is sealed and this area comes back. So it's been a very productive session I think for all of us today. We are glad that we came. For some of us, we have been down -- this is my fourth time to this area, the area of the spill. Secretary Salazar has been here repeatedly as well. We are going to stay on this and stay on BP until this gets done and it gets done the right way. With that, let me turn it over to Bobby Jindal, the governor of Louisiana. He has a few words. He'll be followed by the secretary of the interior, Ken Salazar.</s>GOV. BOBBY JINDAL (R), LOUISIANA: I want to thank our secretaries and the senators for coming to Louisiana again. I want to give you an update. We had some very good, some very direct, some very frank talks. Over the past weeks, you know, I've visited each of the different parishes and cities and have met with local officials. We met often to discuss resources we would need to protect our coast. Unfortunately, our visits have now also included on the ground assessments of the damage caused by this oil spill. For anyone who has seen this damage or seen the impact of this oil firsthand, you know that what we've been saying is true. This oil threatens not only our coast and our wetlands, this oil fundamentally threatens our way of life here in south Louisiana. Yesterday, just yesterday I went out on a boat to Cat Island with the president of Plaquemine's Parish. We saw islands covered in oil, where our brown pelican's nest. We could actually see multiple birds that were oiled, some to the point where they couldn't fly. Wildlife and fishery officials tell us that critical birds are likely not even visible because they move to the inside center of the island. The brown pelican is, obviously, our state bird. Recently -- it was only several months ago it was removed from the endangered species list. The oil on those islands yesterday may actually kill off much of the marshlands that are so important for not only those birds, but for migratory birds, in addition to damaging that bird population there. It's not just at Cat Island. A few days ago we took out a boat out to Pasalutra (ph). We saw thick black and brown colored oil covering much of the perimeter of the marsh out there. And again, our biologists tell us that marsh may begin dying in as soon as five to seven days. It is clear that we don't have the resources we need to protect our coast. We need more booms, more skimmers, more vacuums, more jack- up (ph) barges that are still in short supply. And let's be clear, every day that this oil sits and waits for cleanup is one more day that more of our marsh dies. Over in Terrebonne Parish, oil is moving through their days. Boom and workers sat for days waiting for their orders to be deployed. Yesterday, we met again with coastal parish leaders, just like we did when we formed our own detailed parish protection plans. We know we've got to take action. We've got to take matters into our own hands if we're going to win this fight to protect our coast. We met with parish leaders, emergency professionals, levee district officials to discussed strategies to fill the void we are currently seeing in response efforts to stop this oil. And let's be clear, our goal is not to just clean up this oil once it hits our marshes, our top goal must to be to keep this oil out of our wetlands, our of our marshes, out of this fragile ecosystem. The marsh is not a sandy beach. It would be difficult to clean up. Environmental experts say trying to clean it up could actually do more harm than good in many cases. That means we, as a state, we've got to do everything we can to stop this oil before it comes to our marsh. We've initiated a number of strategies, including tiger dams, hesco (ph) baskets, sand bag drop operations, fresh water diversions, sand fill operations and the proposal of our sand boom, our dredging plan. Had the chance to talk to the secretary and the president about that yet again today. Working with parish leaders yesterday, we came up with new additional strategies to fill the current void in response efforts. We developed a strategy for state and parish officials to have better situational awareness of the oil's movement within our coast and our offshore waters. Wildlife and fisheries have divided up the coast into sections. They'll be patrolling these sectors continuously so the containment and cleanup efforts can be operationalized quickly. Their efforts will be supported by the National Guard and parish officials. We will communicate our findings to BP and the Coast Guard on a daily basis to insure our coast is continuously monitored and quickly cleaned. We will also report these findings publicly so the media and the public can keep updated and make sure that BP is held accountable for their cleanup efforts. We've also asked the Coast Guard to refocus their efforts so they have greater command and control on the ground where action needs to be taken quickly to save our coast. We ask for the Coast Guard to forward deployed troops into every basin area of the coast so they can work closely with parish officials there, see the impact of the oil firsthand so they're better able to have eyes on the problem and respond quickly. We need decision makers from the Coast Guard there on the ground. We've been frustrated with the disjointed effort to date that is too often and too little too late for the oil hitting our coast. We need folks in each of the vulnerable basins. For example, the Betton (ph) Sound, Timbalier Terrebonne Bay, Baratary (ph) Bay. That can mobilize resources quickly to contain oil when it arrives. We don't need to wait 24 hours or 48 hours. BP is the responsible party, but we need the federal government to make sure that they are held accountable and that they are indeed responsible. Our way of life depends on it. The actions taken in response to this oil today are going to determine the future of our state. We've also identified additional equipment and personnel available from parishes, agencies, levee districts that will help us take our own proactive measures to keep oil out of our marshes. We plan to use this equipment to expand ongoing efforts by the guard, the National Guard, to close gaps in our coastal areas. We've identified 40 cuts, prioritized 14 of those. We're identifying additional cuts to -- we're going to work to expedite fill-in efforts wherever we can with equipment from the state and parishes. The National Guard has already asked for additional helicopters from other states. We've gotten positive responses from other states on that request. On May 2nd, we leaned forward. We requested a large amount of resources that our parishes would need under a worst case scenario in response to this oil spill. The very next day we announced all of our coastal parish detailed protection plans. We formally requested three million feet of absorbent boom, 5 million feet of hard boom, 30 jack- up barges to allow us to keep this oil out of our wetlands. Today is May 24th. We have received to date a total of 815,569 feet of hard boom. Not even a million feet. And 680,249 feet of this total hard boom has been deployed. And 135,320 feet of hard boom sits and waits to be deployed. In the last 24 hours - in the last 24 hours, we have only received 5,040 feet of hard boom. We need more boom. We need more resources. We need the materials we've requested to fight this oil, to keep it out of our marsh, off of our coast. I'll close by saying, we continue to await a decision of our dredging, sand boom claim from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. We have made the modifications suggested by the Corps. We've answered every question they submitted in the same day they asked their questions. We have shown them and the media pictures of the sand boom in Fushon (ph) that is actively holding the oil back from farther inland traveling into our marshes. We know this strategy works. That is why I've taken matters into our own hands yesterday to do more of these sand fills ourselves while we wait on approval for the larger dredging plan. To date, a total of just under 70 miles of our coast has been hit by oil. That is more than the seashore line of Maryland and Delaware combined. Let's be clear, and I'll close with this, we've only got two options in Louisiana. There's only two options in front of us. We can either fight this oil off of our coast, 15 to 20 miles away on barrier islands, on sand booms, where it will do much less damage to our marine life and to our wetlands and our fragile eco system. But every day we do not fight this oil on a barrier island, every day we are not dredging sand means one more day this oil has a chance to come into our ecosystem, into our wetlands that are home to some of the nation's most important fisheries. Thirty percent of the nation's oil and gas comes off this coast. Thirty percent of the nation's fisheries. These are America's wetlands. Let's make no mistake about what is at stake here is our way of life. This is not just about keeping oil off of a rocky land or a beach. This is about a way of life for our people and for our state. So we need to get this plan approved as quickly as possible. Every day that it is not approved, is another day this choice is made for us and we are forced to fight this oil farther and farther in our wetlands instead of off of our coast where we'd rather right this. We don't want a drop of oil to hit our coast. And as governor of Louisiana, I'd much rather fight this oil on a barrier island, on a hard, rocky coast than have to fight it inside of our wetlands. Thank you all very much.</s>KEN SALAZAR, INTERIOR SECRETARY: From day one President Obama has made it very clear that the United States of America will not rest - we will not rest for one minute until this problem gets resolved. And that is why Secretary Napolitano is here today, on her fourth visit here. I've been in Houston at the command center about (ph) four times and this is also my fourth visit here to Louisiana. And we will not rest until this job gets done. It is also important to note that with us today is the leadership of the United States Senate. When we think about the assistant majority leader of the United States Senate, Dick Durbin is here with five of the colleagues in the U.S. Senate because the eyes of the United States Senate are on Louisiana, what's happening here in the Gulf Coast today. I want to make it very clear. Under the law, BP is the responsible party. BP is charged with capping their leaking oil well and paying for the response and for the recovery without limitation. They will be held accountable. We will keep our boot on their neck until the job gets done. And as I said yesterday, we will make sure that all of their responsibilities are fulfilled to the people of the Gulf Coast and to the United States government. When Admiral Allen (ph), as a commander of this situation, is not satisfied with the actions of BP, he calls and we'll call BP and push</s>SEN. RICHARD DURBIN (D), ILLINOIS: Thanks. Thanks, Secretary Salazar. I want to thank Secretary Napolitano as well. I also want to thank our host here, our colleague, Senator Mary Landrieu and Senator David Vitter, who are hosting us, with Congressman Kyl here from Louisiana. We put this trip together on sort notice. I contacted my colleagues late last week and said, we'd like you to come and see firsthand what's going on in the Gulf of Mexico. And the turnout was amazing. We ended up not only with those you see from the state of Louisiana, but clearly, in addition to those, we have Senator Jeff Bingaman, who is the chairman of the energy committee in the United States Senate, Senator Lisa Murkowski from Alaska, who is a member of that committee - ranking member of that committee, the energy committee as well and a member as well, Senator Whitehouse of Rhode Island. The reason we came here was to see firsthand what has happened. I can tell you, after seeing it and after listening in that hall to the men and women, whose lives have been affected, that I've come away with a new feeling about BP. BP, in my mind, no longer stands for British Petroleum, it stands for beyond patience. People have been waiting 34 days for British Petroleum to cap this well and stop the damage that's happening across the Gulf of Mexico. There are options and alternatives that we hear a lot about. But what we've heard from this administration and what we need to tell BP is, excuses don't count any more. You caused this mess, now stop the damage and clean up the mess. It's your responsibility. My listening there to the oystermen, the fishermen, the charter boat operators, some of them were emotional. They're talking about their ways of life. They're talking about their families. They're talking about businesses that they've had for generations that are at stake right here and now. Now, I've seen something like this before in Lisa Murkowski's state 21 years ago. I went up to see the Exxon Valdez spill. I'll never forget those scenes. They were heartbreaking. That crude oil, that swamp, that sound, that beautiful, beautiful sound, changed the way that that sound works today. Lisa Murkowski can tell you, it's different. And the people who live there face a different life because of it. That's what's wrong with this situation. We never should have been where we are today and now this administration will continue to put the pressure on BP to do what's right, to clean up this mess and pay for every dollar of it. Not the taxpayers of America, but British Petroleum. They're t he ones who have to foot the bill here for their mistake, for their accident and the damage they've caused. It's my honor now to introduce my colleague and friend from the United States Senate and senator from Louisiana, Mary Landrieu.</s>SEN. MARY LANDRIEU (D), LOUISIANA: Senator Durbin is going to be a strong ally to all of us in Louisiana and the Gulf Coast as we fight for justice and fairness in this situation. Secretary Salazar has been an extraordinary leader, and Secretary Napolitano, as the commander of this situation. As they've both described, this is unprecedented and they are putting the full force of their offices, their departments and all the assets of the federal government to tackle this problem. Secretary Salazar recognizes, as he said, that BP is responsible. But I recognize that the federal government is in charge of this situation and he is pressing BP at every level with every scientist at his disposal and every engineer available to him and to the secretary to get this well shut at the earliest possible convenience -- or earliest possible date, not a convenience, earliest possible date. And they are doing that. I hope it could be done today, if not in the next few days. Secondly, we need all to do a better job of processing these claims. There was very emotional pleas today but I've heard them before. I've been here a half dozen times and on the phone with hundreds of Louisianans and people from around the Gulf Coast. I want to say again, if you made $50,000 last year and you can't work this year, BP is going to write you a check for $50,000. If your business made a million dollars last year, and you can't make that million this year, BP is going to make your business whole. There is no question in my mind or the minds of these senators or these leaders up here who will pay this bill to individual individuals, to businesses, to parishes, to the state and to the federal government resources that have been spent to date. So I wanted to just, you know, clear that up, because there's still some uncertainty. We're working the details of that out. But those bills will be paid in full. And finally, just I want to say that I could not expect more from Secretary Salazar, who's running this department, to have a balance of prosecuting -- and that's a good word -- prosecuting this incident, but preparing the right way for the future for our state, for the Gulf Coast and for the nation that needs to mine these resources safely. So as we clean up this mess, handle the thing right before us, he also has his eye on the future and how we manage the fisheries industry, the oil and gas industry, and all the industries that call this working coast home in a way that protects us and protects the nation. So I thank him for that and thank Secretary Napolitano for her leadership, too. And call on Senator Vitter from Louisiana.</s>SEN. DAVID VITTER (R), LOUISIANA: Thank you very much, Mary. I want to thank the governor for his great leadership; want to thank the two cabinet secretaries and our Senate colleagues for being here. We very much appreciate it. I agree with all of the statements that have been made about BP. But I've spent my time today with these federal government officials, focusing on what I think millions of Louisianans feel and know is the greatest inadequacy of the federal response. And that's our inability so far to get a timely, positive response to this crucial emergency dredging barrier island plan. That's been going on and languishing, unfortunately, for more than two weeks. Because of that, I wrote President Obama on Friday a very clear but respectful letter. And I said, "Mr. President, "We appreciated you coming to Louisiana. We appreciated the clear commitment you made to act in a timely manner and do whatever it takes. But that commitment is now being broken, because we cannot get, so far, a timely, clear answer from the Corps of Engineers and others on this emergency dredging barrier island plan. We need more boom; we need more boom deployment; but we need that land boom immediately to block oil from our marsh." And so I'm asking the president respectfully again, we need that immediate positive answer. I'll be following up again with Admiral Allen today, again with the leadership of the Corps, and working with the state until we get that positive response. Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Bingaman.</s>SEN. JEFF BINGAMAN (D), NEW MEXICO: It's great to be here with my colleagues and with Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Salazar. I'm persuaded after the meetings we've had today and what we've been able to see that -- that this is the nation's problem. It's not just Louisiana's problem. And the nation is pulling together and moving aggressively to solve it. And I'm persuaded that the president has this solving of this problem as his top priority and that, of course, he's -- he's delegated these two secretaries to get that job done, and they're working night and day to get it done. So we're anxious to help in the U.S. Senate. I'm glad to be here to learn about it and continue with the effort to come to the aid of the Gulf region and of Louisiana. Thank you.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Murkowsi.</s>SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI (R), ALASKA: We had an opportunity to fly over the spill area before we came here to the -- Port Fourchon. And I looked down at the ocean with great sadness. Because your ocean, as warm and lovely as it is, looks just like my ocean up north, except my ocean is a little bit colder. But we experienced a similar tragedy just a little over 20 years ago. And it's a devastation that lives with you forever. And so to listen this afternoon to your fishermen, to your shrimpers, to your chartered boatmen, to your oystermen and to hear their fears and concerns, unfortunately it's like deja vu all over again for those of us from Alaska. And if there's one thing that we learned from the tragedy of the Exxon Valdez, it's not to repeat the mistakes from history. It's not to treat the plaintiffs in that case, the fishermen and their families, who waited decades for compensation from Exxon -- we want to work together to make sure that this claims process works fairly and efficiently and in a manner as is promised. We need to make sure that those that are accountable, BP, are held accountable to the fullest extent. But it's going to take a commitment to make sure that the people of Louisiana and the fishermen and their families are not treated in a similar manner as we saw played out some 20 years ago. So know that we're committed to working with you so that the mistakes that were made in Alaska are not repeated here in the Gulf of Mexico.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. We are here to represent the Senate, particularly the energy committee and the environment committee, which will have a lot to do with overseeing this and making sure that the restoration continues effectively and that an incident like this does not happen again. We are here from a variety of states, including the largest coastal state in America and the smallest coastal state in America, in solidarity with the coastal economy and the coastal way of life of this part of Louisiana and the Gulf. And many of us are here because we know firsthand what a relentless and formidable advocate for Louisiana Mary Landrieu is in our caucus. And we want to make sure that we don't get in trouble with her, because she's a powerful advocate for Louisiana. And so looking forward, we want to make sure that the work continues. I think we've all been impressed by the unprecedented nature of the involvement that the administration -- in getting this done. More people, more boats, more action than ever before. But also the continuing need for further action and to bring this home to a point where the people of Louisiana can say, the water is clear, the leak is capped, and we are made whole. So, thank you all very much.</s>NAPOLITANO: Thank you. Thank you. Well said, and we're happy to take questions. I want to reiterate one more time: BP is the responsibility party. We are going to make sure that BP does what is necessary. If we need to put more supervisors in the Coast Guard in the field to get it done, we've already said, yes, we're going to do that. Boom is an issue. We are dealing with that. Senator Vitter mentioned the issue about a special kind of dredging and boom at the barrier islands as Admiral Allen, who will be -- is the national commander, has already said. That is on an expedited review process. Looking at that, looking at whether there are some options that would be as effective or even more effective and less environmentally sensitive. But hopefully, have some response, direct response on that within the next few days. So we move forward and understand, all understand and have from the first day, the urgency, the uniqueness of this situation and the importance of holding BP responsible. Let's take a few questions. Clark (ph), you want to lead that?</s>ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Good. That's Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napoliano (sic) -- Napolitano and a whole lot of other government officials and senators in Port Fourchon, Louisiana, which is sort of the central point for oil that comes in from offshore.