Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

BP's Latest Attempt to stop Gulf Oil Spill; President Feels Political Pressure to Take Action on Oil Leak Crisis; Impact of Oil Slick on Marine Life; Blame Game in Washington: Who's Responsible for Oil Spill; Sickened by the Oil?

Aired May 27, 2010 - 07:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Live pictures from the floor of the Gulf of Mexico. Is the top kill effort to try to plug up that leaking oil well working? BP officials say it's too soon to say, but so far, the operation is going as planned.

Good morning. Thanks for joining us on the Most News in the Morning. A special edition of AMERICAN MORNING on this Thursday, May 27th.

I'm John Roberts in New York.

Good morning, Kiran.

KIRAN CHETRY, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, John.

I'm here in Grand Isle, Louisiana, for another day as we start day 38 of the oil spill. There is a lot of uncertainty here about the future of this coastline, the future of the delicate marshlands, and many questions about whether or not this leak is going to be able to be plugged today. We hope to find out some more news about that, but meanwhile, a lot of anxiety, and of course, a lot of finger pointing about who is handling the cleanup and whether or not more needs to be done at the federal level.

Meanwhile our David Mattingly has been following the latest as it concerns the top kill efforts. He's live in New Orleans this morning with more on that aspect of the story. You know, there's a lot of hope being put into this high pressure mud that's being pumped in there.

What do you know now about the status of the operation?

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Kiran, we only know what BP has been able to tell us so far. And nothing has changed from overnight that they say only that everything is going according to plan. But that's as far as they go. They still at this point are not willing to say if the top kill procedure is going to work or not.

We have all watched with a great deal of interest what appears to be the drilling mud that they are pumping into the blowout preventer down below that seems to be spewing out the top where the oil has been leaking out. You know, before there at the top we could see a cloud of oil coming out of the blowout preventer out of the riser tube. Now we are seeing what appears to be the mud coming out the top.

Experts have been watching that also wondering if it is a possible sign of success as this mud is overpowering the oil, perhaps pushing it back down like it's supposed to. But so far, no confirmation.

And BP has been careful to say, do not look at these clouds of oil or mud coming out of these pipes and try to make any judgment on whether or not this operation is being successful or not. They say it will take 24 hours. That would be sometime this afternoon before we know if this top kill is actually killing that well.

CHETRY: So when they say don't look at the pictures and judge, do we know whether or not that will change, whether they will be able to get indications as we all look at the live picture of whether or not it's working perhaps this afternoon or later? Will we see the picture change?

MATTINGLY: They have been saying all along that you will be able to see the change in the flow of oil, in the consistency as the mud mixes with oil and sometimes it will look like it did in the past, the plume of oil coming out. Sometimes it will be completely obscured by mud.

But they keep saying don't look at that and make any judgment one way or the other. In fact, yesterday BP's CEO Tony Hayward came out to say that everything is going according to plan. But at this point we are not ready to say if the operation is going to be a success.

And now here we are 15, 16 hours into the operation and we have not heard anything different from BP about this.

CHETRY: And what's the backup plan, David, if this doesn't work?

MATTINGLY: Well, the backup plan is really kind of interesting, sort of a departure from what they are doing. Right now they are trying to stop the leak by pumping in all this heavy liquid under pressure to essentially drown this well and cover it with cement. That plan is to stop it.

The next plan if this doesn't work is to go back to a plan to contain it by putting -- by shearing off that pipe on top and putting a newly crafted containment dome on top of the pipe and siphoning the oil again to a ship on the surface.

So what they are looking at now instead of -- plan b would be to instead of stopping the oil would be going back to an idea to contain it. But again, everyone hoping that this top kill is that silver bullet they have been looking for to kill this well.

CHETRY: Absolutely. Thanks so much, David. Back to you, John, in New York.

JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Kiran.

We're following breaking news this morning. The White House says President Obama will extend a moratorium on deep water offshore oil drilling for another six months. Suzanne Malveaux is live at the White House with the very latest on that. Good morning, Suzanne.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Well, already the White House is giving bits and pieces of what the president will say later today. The Interior Secretary Ken Salazar briefed the president last night to give his 30 day review.

One of the things is extending that moratorium on offshore by another six months or so. Some other things, John, even more unexpected and remarkable coming from this administration is really a delay of some of these projects that they have been pushing, a delay when it comes to exploration of drilling off the coast of Alaska.

Also projects in the western Gulf coast as well as Virginia, those two projects actually cancelled all together. So, John, you have an administration that is clearly very much aware that they are pulling back here. They have to reassess, figure out what is going on. That's just some of the things the president will be highlighting.

ROBERTS: And under a lot of pressure as well, the president taking a lot of heat on his handling of the oil spill, even from Democrats. Let's listen to what James Carville, a Louisiana native, said to our John King last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMES CARVILLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: BP is not the equal of the United States government. This president needs to tell BP, "I'm your daddy, I'm in charge. You're going to do what we say. You're a broken national company that's greedy and you may be guilty of criminal activity."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTS: So what is the president doing, Suzanne, to show that he is in charge here?

MALVEAUX: You know, John, I talked to White House officials who said, look, this whole question about who's your daddy, the White House is calling the shots here when it comes to behind the scenes, whether or not things get a green light, get pushed back.

Two examples here, clearly the gusher cam where you see the oil spilling out of the pipe there, BP officials essentially wanted to shut down that video feed while they figured out how to plug the leak. The president himself got personally involved said, no, you're going to continue. We want to see what's happening. It was a very frustrating experience to even get that camera up in the first place. The second example is you have the coast guard Admiral Thad Allen saying yesterday, yes, the administration gave the green light for the risky top kill procedure. He also made the point that what the government wants to happen here really carries the weight of the law.

So they don't need to federalize this program here, this project. They feel they are calling the shots and they don't want the credit or blame for this mess and they certainly don't want the bill. John?

ROBERTS: We'll talk to James Carville in our third hour this morning and see if he takes comfort from the president's announcements today. Thanks, Suzanne.

CNN will carry the president's press conference live at 12:45 eastern. Of course you can also see that online and CNN.com/live.

"AMERICAN MORNING" is the place to be for complete coverage as BP continues to try to stop this massive oil leak, the story changing rapidly. Only CNN has the connections and the resources to bring you every angle of the story every hour.

Coming up in just a few minutes time, the managing director of BP Bob Dudley will join us. Then at the top of the next hour the man heading up the federal effort, coast guard commandant Admiral Thad Allen.

Breaking news just moments ago, reaching the boiling point on the Korean peninsula. North Korea now promising all-out war. This comes after the South Korean military carried out military drills firing artillery shells and dropping anti-submarine bomb this is morning off the west coast of the country.

Things started to escalate after South Korea accused the north of sinking one of its warships in march, killing 46 sailors.

Now back to Grand Isle, Louisiana. Here's Kiran.

CHETRY: John, thanks.

It also appears the oil slick is making people sick. Cleanup crews are being pulled off the water along with 125 commercial boats because workers experienced dizziness, nausea, headaches and chest pains. One hospital near New Orleans treated at least seven people. There are some people taken by ambulances, some by helicopter.

A friend says all of the fishermen were working on the water where the oil was being burned. He claims he's working -- that he's worked in oil refineries in the region before and warned officials that crews' health could be compromised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINT GUIDRY, FRIEND OF SICK FISHERMAN: I met with Secretary Napolitano and Secretary Salazar day before yesterday in Galliano, and I warned them in a written, signed testimony that this would happen. It took two days and there was no action from them, so consequently, it's happened.

I called British Petroleum liars and killers. They are in the most dangerous place that they could have possibly been. They did not afford them the protection of respirators or supplied air, which I have been asking for almost three weeks, and this is the consequence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: As you can see, a lot of anger and frustration again about the response and whether or not locals who understand the consequences of a lot of this are being listened to. We're going to have more about the risks to the cleanup crews from the oil and chemicals dispersants that BP is using with our Sanjay Gupta at 7:50 eastern time.

And also coming up, a close-up look at the oil staining Louisiana's coast and miles offshore, what it's doing to marine life on the open waters. Rob Marciano rides along with researchers as they try to assess how devastating the spill has been to sea animals.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: A beautiful shot this morning at 12 minutes past the hour. It's 6:12 in Grand Isle, Louisiana, as we see the sun rise over the waters.

A beautiful shot, but it is bittersweet for many here. This is the Thursday before Memorial Day weekend. This is supposed to be packed, but these beaches are closed because of the oil spill.

Fishermen, recreational fishermen and thousands of people usually converge on Grand Isle this time of year. It's how the locals, particularly the restaurants and hotels as well as the fishermen make their money for the year. It's closed down and the uncertainty of the future is causing so much anxiety for many here this morning.

Meantime, BP says that it should know sometime today if the top kill procedure is successful. One thing we do know is that vast stretches of the Louisiana coast are covered in heavy crude oil. And the impact on the sea life is devastating.

Rob Marciano had a chance to reach out and touch the oil spill disaster. He is live in New Orleans this morning for us. And you know, it's just heart-breaking to see those pictures. You were out there, witnessed it. You could touch it, smell it. It really brought home just how big of an environmental disaster we're looking at.

ROB MARCIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it did. For me, the day before we went out to the wetlands that had seen oil, but the oil had retreated and we saw wildlife affected by that and the shoreline affected by that. But we didn't see the thick oil slick per se.

Yesterday we went out with researchers. Our goal was twofold -- one, to get as close as we can to the top kill operation, and then, two, to take scientific samples. We ran into a couple of roadblocks. The first was bad weather. So we had to take a detour. And then the second roadblock about ten miles offshore was oil -- a lot of it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, man, look at that stream (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at the hulls of those boats. It's thick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like mud.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's unreal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is ugly. This is really ugly.

MARCIANO (voice-over): Ugly is definitely an understatement and we're only 12 miles from shore.

By far the thickest oil we've seen yet. This is just disturbing. Check it out. And the oil, layers of oil actually building on each other in a putty-like form. This definitely is not dispersed. It's barely weathered. It almost looks like it's fresh, fresh from the pipe.

(voice-over): Some areas of the oil are thicker than others. This is only the western edge of the slick.

(on camera): We are still not even 50 miles from the site of the spill. Unbelievable. Our little armada pauses. We're out here with five other boats and all of them have this nasty oil stuck to the hull. That's going to be a chore getting off. This boat just across the way, those guys are lowering a submersible camera to take a look at what the water and oil mixture looks like below the surface.

(voice-over): Boats are carrying scientist, peering into and under the oil. Dr. Ian MacDonald takes samples back to his lab in Florida while Dr. Doug Inkley patrols for the National Wildlife Federation. A dead eel floats toward our boat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have a jar large enough to put this in?

MARCIANO: It, too, is taken as a sample. Now headed to the lab for a closer look. Minutes later, something else is in the water. This one is alive.

VOICE OF DR. DOUG INKLEY, NATIONAL WILDLIFE FEDERATION: That animal might be in a lot of trouble. You normally don't see sharks like this running around on the surface. But this animal looks like it's in distress.

MARCIANO: The shark dives as we approach. Along the way we see other sea creatures struggling in the oil like this baby crab. What's on the surface is easy to see. DR. IAN MACDONALD, OCEANOGRAPHER, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY: The animals like this that are out in the open ocean, we don't see them washed up. How do you assess that? If you have a shark that dies in the water here and sinks to the bottom, where is the assessment on that? How do you assess that?

MARCIANO: Can't count it. Much like the oil still spewing from the well, the amount of wildlife lost here may never be known.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARCIANO: And that a huge frustration with these marine biologist. They know that the animals that live closer to shore, they can be a little bit more assessed, they might get a little bit more sympathy but there are so many, hundreds, thousands of marine animals that live out in the open ocean that will never ever wash up ashore. We can never count that toll that this oil spill is having on them.

You know, we saw a lot of oil out there, Kiran. One thing we didn't see -- and visibility is great. You can see over 20 miles in any direction. We didn't see one skimmer, not one vessel charged to clean up this mess. And later I heard that BP was saying that yesterday, well, you know, the oil wasn't so bad yesterday. So we didn't really put too many skimmers out there.

Well, I can tell you this. Where we were, the oil was bad as far as the eye can see. And I'm sure that's not the only spot -- Kiran.

CHETRY: No, I totally hear what you're saying. When we were out, you know, closer to the bayou area, there were boats that ostensibly were sent out there to lay boom that was just sitting idle. We witnessed that and we also witnessed several of those marshlands that are supposed to be the top priority to protect where, you know, the boom had blown onto the actual grasses because of the waves and the currents and no one had come back to set it properly again. And there was a lot of outrage from the fishermen about all of that. So, and you illustrated exactly the impact though when you see that red oil and how thick it is.

Rob Marciano for us this morning. Thanks so much -- John.

ROBERTS: Thanks, Kiran.

Pointing fingers. There are a lot of them being pointed in a lot of different directions. Lawmakers trying to get to the bottom of the gulf oil catastrophe. Coming up next, the blame game grows longer in Washington.

We're back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: Twenty-one minutes after the hour. You're looking at a live picture deep beneath the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. BP's top kill operation now about 16 hours old. We should know later on today if it's working. Right now, though, you're seeing those plumes are mostly drilling mud, that mud that they're putting down the well. Maybe a little bit of crude oil mixed in there as well. We'll be talking with the managing director of BP about all of this coming in just a few minutes.

Later on today, the president will address the nation. He's announcing plans for tougher safety testing on offshore rigs. And tomorrow he's going to head to the gulf for a firsthand look at the disaster.

Meanwhile, Jim Acosta tells us the blame game raging in Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): To find out what caused the BP oil disaster, federal officials are just starting to hear from key survivors of the rig explosion.

DOUGLAS BROWN, TRANSOCEAN, CHIEF MECHANIC DEEPWATER HORIZON: It was just complete mayhem, chaos. People were scared. They're crying. I heard later that some were jumping overboard.

ACOSTA: At a hearing in Louisiana, Douglas Brown, the rig's chief mechanic, said he witnessed what he called a skirmish between his co-workers at Transocean and officials with BP over drilling procedures just hours before the catastrophe, a skirmish he says BP won.

BROWN: There was a slight argument that took place and a difference of opinion. And the company man was basically saying, well, this is how it's going to be.

ACOSTA: Other workers on the rig testified BP was taking shortcuts. What's strange, Brown noted, is that BP officials were on the rig that day to give the workers a pat on the back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were you aware of what the purpose of the visit was?

BROWN: Basically, yes, to congratulate the crew on a good safety record.

ACOSTA: That testimony along with more than 100,000 pages of internal company documents are being pored over by members of Congress investigating the spill. The chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee sent this letter to his colleague stating "key questions exist about whether proper procedures were followed for critical activities throughout the day."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The blame game is in full force right now.

ACOSTA: At a separate hearing in Washington, Democrats and Republicans pointed fingers over who's to blame for the scandal- plagued federal agency that's supposed to regulate the oil industry, the Minerals Management Service. Lawmakers tangled over an inspector general's report that found MMS officials had accepted gifts from oil companies during the Bush administration.

REP. DOUG LAMBORN (R), COLORADO: I don't understand. I have to just be real honest here. Why you and others keep harping on what MMS did or didn't do in the previous administration. Why aren't we talking about the here and now?

KEN SALAZAR, INTERIOR DEPT. SECRETARY: But we are talking, Congressman Lamborn, about the here and now. Unlike the prior administration, this is not the candy store of the oil and gas kingdom which you and others were a part of.

ACOSTA: Then Inspector General Mary Kendall said the Interior Department should adopt new rules that would restrict oil industry officials who go on to work at the MMS and then immediately regulate their former companies.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no waiting period now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't believe so, no.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Members of Congress say officials with BP are talking about what went wrong, but a spokesman for BP had no comment on any conversations that took place on the rig before the disaster struck. And, John, as for that hearing that's going on down in Louisiana on behalf of the Coast Guard, there are BP officials who are dropping out of today's hearing today, John.

ROBERTS: Yes, you've got nobody from BP saying much. However, Jim, coming right after the break, we're going to get an update from BP's managing director, Robert Dudley. The latest on the top kill operation and responding to charges from one parish leader that the company and the federal government are acting like children.

It's 24 minutes after the hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: We're back with the Most News in the Morning at 27 minutes after the hour. BP says there is a 60 to 70 percent chance that the top kill that they're engaged in now will work even if the well is sealed shut today. It's still millions of gallons too late though. We see the oil fouling the gulf and sensitive marshlands.

Bob Dudley is BP's managing director. He joins us live from Houston this morning.

Mr. Dudley, thanks for being with us. You know, as we look at those live pictures on the ocean floor and that broken riser pipe, we still see clouds of some material coming out. Can you decipher that for us? What is it that we're looking at and how is this top kill operation going? BOB DUDLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BP: Good morning, John. We started the top kill operation yesterday at 1:00 Central Time. So we've been into it about 15 hours now. It will take -- we thought it would take between half a day and two days to do. What you have is this titanic arm wrestling match between the well and the heavy muds that we're driving into the well. Two flows essentially going at each other with a stream that comes out of the well. And while you can't draw conclusions from the plume other than it is drilling mud, sometimes it will be stopped for a while. Sometimes you may see some oil and gas. So you can't draw conclusions from what you see. Right now, what you see is a water-based, nontoxic mud --

ROBERTS: Right.

DUDLEY: -- that is coming out of the top.

ROBERTS: So you'll keep pumping that in until there is sufficient weight. I guess the theory goes that there's sufficient weight to that mud holding down the oil. You can stop pumping it and it should stabilize?

DUDLEY: That's right. That's the objective here is that the flow rate is high. We can't pump in with too high a pressure as it will create other damage. So it is truly an arm wrestling match, a very closely (INAUDIBLE) forces. Assuming we can wrestle the well to the ground, after that we would pump in cement to be able to really kill it.

ROBERTS: Right.

DUDLEY: And that will take --

ROBERTS: I was just going to say if this "top kill" fails, you still have a couple of other options. One would be to cut off the riser pipe just about the blowout preventer and put a cap on it. Now that fits a little more tightly than that dome did and try to take some of the oil out that way while you try to figure out what else to do. You could also potentially put another blowout preventer on top of the blowout preventer, but those I take it are way down the line of preferred options. Is there a chance that if this doesn't work this well could be gushing until you get that kill well drilled and that won't be until August?

DUDLEY: Well, those options are not way down the line. We've set out on the seabed all around where the activity is today. So that we determine we just can't overcome it in the "top kill" operation, we will immediately go into the phase of putting out, cutting off the top and putting a containment device in it. That might take two to three days before we would have that in place. If we did that, we think we would then be able to float the oil to the surface and measure it at that point.

ROBERTS: Yes.

DUDLEY: But what we really need to do is try to kill this thing.

ROBERTS: Yes.

DUDLEY: And so far that operation is proceeding like we expected.

ROBERTS: Yes, and particularly when the hurricane season starts next Tuesday and NOAA today is going to give us a fairly ominous forecast saying that this hurricane season could be very much like 2005. We all remember Hurricane Katrina in 2005. If you don't get this well capped, if the oil continues to flow and a hurricane hits the gulf, what are the potential consequences?

DUDLEY: Well, there's a lot of studies in the past about what happens when oil, hurricanes hit oil spills. And the scenarios are very different depending on the path of the hurricane. Some of them can drive it farther into the marsh and some of them absolutely dissipated.

So it's hard to say. I mean, the probability of a hurricane in early season generally is low. What we really want to do though is stop the well and clean it up on the surface. They are making good progress on the surface. We hate to see those images of 30 acre or so marsh in Louisiana and the beaches there. There are thousands of people down there cleaning this up.

ROBERTS: To that point, in fact, we have some pictures because Anderson Cooper went out with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal yesterday into one of those marshes and we're looking at the pictures right now of the oil fouling the grasslands there.

And according to Jindal and other officials, nobody's been back there to even try to clear that out. Why isn't BP back there try to mop up this mess?

DUDLEY: Well, I know, John, from the operation center there that they have - there really are thousands of people. The Coast Guard, and the BP people as well as local volunteers they're all around through that area -

ROBERTS: Well, with respect, Mr. Dudley, there were none in this particular area and there haven't been for days.

DUDLEY: Well, there are pockets in there where they are prioritizing where they are focused. There are pockets where people haven't been yet but I assure you there are people all around through those regions working hard, and cleaning it up, putting it away for hazardous material disposal.

The marshes are sensitive and difficult. And once it's in there, that is what we really want to keep out and not allow that area to increase.

ROBERTS: And as you look at these pictures you can see that the grasses are dying already, which kind of brings to mind a statement that your CEO Tony Hayward made in recent days that he thought that overall the environmental impact of this would be, "very, very modest." Are you still sticking with that assessment?

DUDLEY: Well, he made those statement some time ago. And at that point we had been able to keep all of the oil off the beaches everywhere. And we were disappointed to see them break through some of those defenses. And so there is no question that he is devastated to see that. We're redoubling our efforts. The Coast Guard and BP are mobilizing people from the other sides of the gulf now in Louisiana.

ROBERTS: So, if I were to ask you now what you thought the environmental impact of this would be, what would you say?

DUDLEY: Well, I mean, for the people of southeast Louisiana, this is clearly, clearly a terrible thing. It's terrible for the wildlife in that area. It's disappointing for all the teams who are working so hard and they have been working for a long time down there in that hot weather.

ROBERTS: Sure. Sure.

(CROSSTALK)

DUDLEY: I'm just energized to try to minimize it, to make sure that more doesn't get through but we do have damage, there's no question.

ROBERTS: Yes. I'm sorry, Mr. Dudley. I mean, terrible and disappointed. Those are interesting words to use to describe what people are feeling, but in terms of the actual environmental impact is this minimal?

Is it moderate? Is it going to be a disaster? How would you put it?

DUDLEY: Well, there are 30 acres there right now of marshland. It's clearly a disaster for that area. The beaches, the tide brings in the oil, we have the teams to clean up the oil and then the tide brings it back in. It's a continuous cycle. I think that we'll be able to clean and get those beaches clean.

The marshes will take more time to recover. This has happened before in areas of Louisiana. They take time to recover. And then we've got to understand the impacts of the dispersant and the oil in the gulf and we started - we'll start a massive study program with scientists from all over the gulf region and this will take a decade.

We'll support that. We need to understand so we learn from this for the future. Not only for the Gulf of Mexico but everywhere in the world.

ROBERTS: Robert Dudley, managing director of BP, thanks for spending time with us this morning.

And let's go back to Grand Isle and here's Kiran. CHETRY: I know that you were pushing him on that. I mean, people out here are outraged. They don't know if the marshlands are going to come back. They say that once they die and the Mississippi River obviously doesn't overflow and provide that nutrient and silt like it used to decades ago or centuries ago obviously because of the levee systems and the channels.

And so there are a lot of questions as to whether it will ever come back. As for, John, the back and forth about the dispersants as well. I mean, they're saying it's a 10-year environmental impact studies. I mean, meanwhile they pumped nearly a million gallons into the waters and again its impact is not known. And it's already there in the water. So, you know, a lot of questions this morning on that.

And more and more lawmakers want the government to move in and to take over operations along the gulf. Senator Olympia Snow said it doesn't seem anyone is in charge at any level. If Congressman Rich Rahall says he thinks the president needs to show a more take-charge attitude and then there are calls by others to let the military take over this operation, to be able to call in the Navy, to call in private industry as needed to have the military ultimately in charge. We're going to be talking much more about that as well, coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE (RET.), CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You know, time is not on our side. So I think the federal government needs to unleash all of the capabilities we have to include bringing in more National Guard and regular troops that could reinforce the Coast Guard effort and give the Coast Guard full rein to deal with this thing as the incident commander and use a more National Guard and active duty troops with capabilities to add the command and control.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHETRY: So what are military officials saying this morning? Our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is working her sources and she joins us live with the very latest. How realistic is it to say that the military could take over. You know, all they are waiting for is the word so they can take over. Is that a realistic assessment?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kiran, you know, it's what a lot of people are talking about in Washington. We are used to seeing these pictures of military troops on the scene of any disaster. But it's a little more problematic here than you may think. I mean, what could the military really do?

Well, on the upside, certainly it is the U.S. military that has the ability to coordinate and organize and carry out complex operations. Everybody knows that. But to put military force in charge of this is quite different. Because right from the top down, military officials will tell you they have no expertise in offshore drilling or large scale cleanup.

They have contributed some cleanup equipment but this is not what the military does. They don't know how to do it. They would have to take over from civilian authorities and still give their non-military expertise. They could coordinate the whole thing. They could oversee it if they were ordered to by the president.

But fundamentally, a lot of military officials will say, "hey, isn't that the job of the Department of Homeland Security? Why are you coming to us? We don't do offshore drilling. It's not our expertise." So there is a lot of question about what the military could really do. And the bottom line, they say is here at the Pentagon they're not looking for more work. Kiran?

CHETRY: Very true. All right.

Barbara Starr for us this morning from the Pentagon. Thank you.

Coming up, the oil and the outrage - the Obama administration under fire. Some saying the response has been fumbled on this Gulf Coast crisis and there are questions this morning and some are even saying that this oil spill could be President Obama's Katrina. You're watching a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING. We're back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROBERTS: In just a few hours' time President Obama holds a news conference. He is going to address criticism of his administration's response to the Gulf oil spill. Some have even suggested that this oil spill could turn out to be President Obama's Katrina. It's not just Republicans saying that.

Joining us now from Washington presidential historian Douglas Brinkley and from Austin, Texas, Karen Tumulty, who is the national political reporter for "The Washington Post."

Folks, thanks for being with us this morning. There are people on both sides of the aisle who are making this comparison. One in particular and you might say this is an obvious one. Karl Rove has come out to say that this is Obama's Katrina. It could even be worse.

Here's what he said in a op-ed in today's "Wall Street Journal," "since the Deepwater Horizon rig blew up on April 20th, a lethargic Team Obama has delayed or blown off key decisions requested by state and local governments and left British Petroleum in charger of developing a plan to cap the massive leak. Critics include some of his most ardent cheerleaders who understand that 38 days without an administration solution is unacceptable. Could this be Mr. Obama's Katrina? It could be even worse."

Karen, what do you think about that?

KAREN TUMULTY, "WASHINGTON POST," NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, at the beginning of this crisis that was actually comparison that some people in the White House welcomed. Because they felt that they had responded more quickly, more efficiently, that they were very much on the same page with both BP and the local officials in Louisiana in how to deal with this. But it is true that as this has gone on now for five weeks that, in fact, the relations here are fraying. There is a lot of finger pointing at BP starting with the president and of course the officials in Louisiana are growing increasingly frustrated with the federal government.

ROBERTS: You know, Doug, one of the points that people make in saying that this could be worse than Katrina for President Obama is that there was no argument over who had jurisdiction here, federal or state. They were drilling in federal waters. This belongs to the federal government from the very beginning.

So what do you think of these comparisons, are they valid or they're just political hyperbole?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, RICE UNIVERSITY, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY: I don't think they are particularly valid. I'll tell you why. I mean, Hurricane Katrina, when it hit August 29th, 2005, a devastating storm that we ended up within a week having close to 2,000 people die in the gulf south because of slow response.

Remember all the people on the rooftops waving, screaming for help and the anger at the federal government was the feeling can't we get these people water? Can't we get triage centers set up? This is a very different situation. You had 11 people blown up, you have an oil spill and the federal government is not in - whether it's the Obama administration or any other, doesn't know how to close the well. You're forced to give BP that kind of lead.

But I do think the danger for the Obama administration, if this doesn't get capped within 48 hours, this well, you're going to hear a lot of these Katrina language because it's a feeling of helplessness that's growing on the Gulf. People aren't sleeping. People are having Katrina nightmares and the whole region is having a second wave of being traumatized. And they're looking to blame people. BP has been hammered for a month. The beginning of the new hammering of the Obama administration is upon us right now.

ROBERTS: Right. And you know, and god forbid if this top kill operation should fail and then try to either cap the well or put on a new blowout preventer on it, we could be with this thing until August when those kill wells get drilled.

Now, Karen, Admiral Thad Allen had said, and this was somewhat in response to I guess what the Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar said, that if the government pushes BP out of the way, then what? And Doug alluded to this just a moment ago. The government doesn't have the expertise to cap that well.

What really can the government do here?

TUMULTY: Well, one thing that they are trying to say is - from the administration is they are bringing the very best minds to this. I mean, they keep pointing to the fact that Steven Chu, the Energy secretary, Nobel prize-winning energy secretary is down there. But the fact is there isn't a lot they can do. Admiral Allen said the other day that they have consulted with other oil companies who would have be the only people who would have this kind of expertise, have these kind of equipment and basically they are being told what BP is doing is what we would do, too. This is basically it.

One of the problems here is that they're drilling in deep waters and attempting things they never have before, but the technology for dealing with a disaster of this magnitude is something that is decades old and is effective in very different circumstances.

ROBERTS: And Doug, the president will be announcing today at his press conference, at 12:45, which of course we'll carry here on CNN, you know, new regulations involving safety. He's also extending the moratorium on new offshore drilling. He is canceling leases in the Western Gulf of Mexico, canceling a lease sale off of the coast of Virginia, obviously taking some action in the wake of this.

But the question arises, is it too little, too late?

BRINKLEY: Not too little too late. I mean, I think it's a bit of a reversal of Obama, and earlier in the year we wanted to do offshore exploration. But it's a great day, really, for America, when the president is finally saying no to Shell Oil up in the Arctic, in my opinion and the idea that right now we would be allowing a - another foreign company to drill off of the Arctic refuge, our largest wildlife refuge, the biggest polar bear habitat area, that Shell was going to start drilling.

The president now is saying no, and I think it's to see change today and a very important one, to no (ph) up there in the Arctic and in Virginia it shows that this administration is starting to back off from a lot of new offshore drilling and it's getting back to what we call more of an environmental presidency.

So it's a very happy day for groups like the Sierra Club or Audubon Society or Alaska Wilderness League in the wake, and it's - he really did something today that his base is going to be very happy about.

ROBERTS: All right.

Doug Brinkley, Karen Tumulty, great to talk to you this morning.

Thanks so much for joining us.

TUMULTY: Thank you, John.

ROBERTS: It's coming up now to 47 minutes after the hour. Reynolds Wolf with this morning's travel forecast right after the break. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

REYNOLDS WOLF, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Welcome back to CNN AMERICAN MORNING. I'm Reynolds Wolf and this, well, this is your forecast. Let's go right to it and show you what you can expect today. Look for a chance of scattered showers and storms across parts of the northeast and in the Upper Plains and Northern Rockies. Snowfall - yes, snow, possible in the high Sierra and also into parts of the Wasatch Range.

Now, in terms of breezy conditions, you'll have those in parts of the Central Plains and in terms of delays, well, you might have a few of those this week, especially in San Francisco due to showers and, well, you might have some - a few other issues, mainly that fog, 30 minutes to 60 minutes.

Same deal in Dulles, also Miami, Denver, J, roadway and runway constructions are going to give you a few delays and headaches there. Same story in New York metros, also in Boston and Newark. Those thunderstorms may cause a few problems.

You got a lot more coming up straight ahead. You're watching CNN AMERICAN MORNING. See you in a few.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHETRY: Fifty-three minutes past the hour. Welcome back to a special edition of AMERICAN MORNING.

We're live on the Gulf Coast here in Grand Isle, Louisiana, and for the first time since the spill, people are starting to complain that it is making them sick. In fact, yesterday some of the boats were called back in after some local fishermen complained about being ill.

We actually went out on one of the boats owned by Dean Blanchard, who's a big shrimp distributor here, and he showed us the boom, as you can see, and the oil, and boy, the smell of oil was heavy in the air.

Several of the people who were helping with the cleanup complained of nausea, headaches and even chest pain and so, again, the Coast Guard made the call to pull them off the water, some 125 commercial fishing boats that were to be helping in the cleanup effort.

Right now, we bring in Dr. Sanjay Gupta. And, Sanjay, you know, a lot of questions about the air. Is it safe? I mean, when we saw Rob out there with the research team, they were wearing ventilators.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, it's really interesting, and there is some past history to look at when you - when you're talking about Valdez, for example. Look at the potential health effects both in the short term and the long-term.

The picture, as you well know, Kiran, from yesterday, ambulances pulling up to the shore, a helicopter actually taking one fisherman out to a hospital as well. The nausea, the headaches, also chest pain they are complaining of and some of these symptoms, at least in the short term, are associated with exposure to the air around that thick sludge of oil. It's important to point out something that a lot of people are asking right away. Is the air quality different somehow 50 miles off the shore versus on the shore itself? Now, we've looked at some of the EPA monitoring websites. You know, they are kind of measuring the air quality, but a lot of those quality measures are coming from the shore itself.

Out in the middle of the ocean, or 50 miles out, you have the oil, you have the mixture with the dispersants, and you also have some of the smoke from - from the - from the burning that was going on as well. In - after Valdez, Kiran, you know, in the short term, it's really hard to say is this going to be a long-term problem? We know that years later there were lawsuits settled for people complaining of air - respiratory problems, pancreatic problems and liver problems.

So it's really hard to draw a cause and effect relationship here in terms of what that quality of air is going to do to people longer term. But there has, as I mentioned, been some precedent for this in the past.

CHETRY: Yes, and, you know, it just stands to reason, I mean, if - the more places where the oil is built up the most and where you see it the most, probably the areas of most risk. I mean, we haven't seen much oil on the beaches at this time where it's low tide. When the high tide comes in, that's when it comes in.

But, I mean, just out of an abundance of caution, shouldn't everybody just be wearing those ventilators, if they are out there, working the spill?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, we've heard that there've been some complaints of, you know, maybe they're not always getting all the - the right equipment that they need, the proper masks, not only, but also the boots and the gloves.

The big concern here is something known as VOCs, remember that term, volatile organic compounds, and that stuff is what people smell. It's what can cause the problems that we were just talking about.

The tar balls, Kiran, I know you were talking about earlier that wash up on the beach, they look terrible. They look very sludgy. But, as far as we can find out, and people that we're talking to, even though they look bad, oftentimes, they've been stripped way from those volatile organic compounds, so not going to be as dangerous on the shore.

You still shouldn't touch them or be around them, but as far as impacting the air quality very adversely, it doesn't seem to be as much, certainly, again, as compared to 50 miles out.

CHETRY: All right. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for your input this morning.

We're going to take a quick break and top stories coming up in just two minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)