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BP Deciding on 'Top Kill' Maneuver; How 'Top Kill' is Supposed to Work; Final Space Flight for Atlantis
Aired May 26, 2010 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Live now from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris.
Your comments right here, right now, with the CNN NEWSROOM.
We don't need a fancy open this morning, because you know what the top story is -- decision time right now in the oil leak crisis in the Gulf of Mexico. BP running final tests to determine whether to begin the so-called top kill maneuver today to try to plug the gushing oil well with the drilling mud and cement.
We are bringing you live pictures of the site almost a mile under water. This operation has never been done at that depth.
Let's get straight to our Ed Lavandera in Grand Isle, Louisiana.
And Ed, look, when is it going to start? When are we going to know? When is BP going to make a decision here?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's what we all want to know, Tony. And it's going to be a slow process.
And the last thing we heard from the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward, saying this morning that -- after he had done a round of interviews this morning -- he said he was going off to meet with the experts at his company. Essentially, what's going on behind the scenes is that over the last couple of days, they've had these robotic vehicles doing all of this different kind of testing, very complex testing, ,trying to look inside that blowout preventer that you've heard so much about that is on the ocean floor.
And really, they're trying to get a sense of whether or not all of that machinery and all of the things and equipment that have been put into place, whether or not they can essentially withstand this process, the top kill process. So, really, it sounds like the latest information we're getting from Tony Hayward is that it is not necessarily set in stone that this top kill maneuver will be implemented. So they're going over that analysis.
Let's listen to a little bit of what Tony Hayward told us this morning as to where things stand right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: In the course of the last 12 hours, working overnight, we have begun the process of diagnosing the pressures and the potential flow paths in the blowout preventer. Later on today, I will sit with my team, review the analysis, and determine whether or not we should proceed.
So, in the course of today, we will be determining whether or not we should proceed with the top kill operation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA: So there you heard it. You know, you can listen there to what Mr. Hayward was saying, "if we should proceed." So, this is definitely not something that is set in stone.
And even if they do move ahead, Tony, and go through with the top kill process, even by their own admission, they only rank this at a 60 percent to 70 percent chance. We've talked to a lot of different people. And you've got to be honest, the more and more you talk to people in the industry, there is not a really intense sense of optimism if they do go through with the top kill as to whether or not this would actually work.
HARRIS: You are absolutely right about that, Ed. And as I listened to Tony Hayward, boy, it's not clear that this will start today. It sounds like they've got a lot to do to figure out here before making a decision, ,which makes me wonder, why were they making statements suggesting that this would happen on Wednesday?
LAVANDERA: Well, good question. You know, there's -- they've always kind of said that all of this has been very fluid.
HARRIS: Sure. Sure.
LAVANDERA: And as we followed this over the last few weeks, there have been a lot of different ideas that kind of come and go. Some move ahead of others. And they keep saying, BP's saying that they have different ideas and different methods that are all kind of operating at the same time, and that whichever one that they think that they can get into place the quickest, they will follow that one.
Of course, this one has gotten so much attention, Tony, because we know that it is really the clearest and the quickest way of perhaps cutting off this well. A lot of these other options that are on the table, Tony, right now are simply just ways of mitigating the flow, kind of slowing it down, at best, and this is the best chance.
There's another one, but a lot of these -- the risk just goes higher and higher with all these other attempts. And, of course, you're looking at the long-term effects of this, is that none of these work here in the near term, you're looking at more oil flow up until August, until those relief wells are finished, which is, as I mentioned, in August.
HARRIS: Yes. I guess we're pushing, you're pushing, we're pushing BP to come up with some kind of a date as to when they'll cap this thing. So you come up with Wednesday. You take a look at the pictures there, live pictures, and if it doesn't work today or it doesn't happen today, you still have to deal with the PR nightmare of these pictures.
BP calls its top kill maneuver a 60 percent to 70 percent chance of succeeding. Now, here's how the procedure is supposed to work.
Crews will inject a drilling mud into the blowout preventer. That is a device that was supposed to stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf. Then cement will be used to plug the leak.
Now, I've got to tell you that the depth of the Gulf leak is what is making it so challenging. The source is almost a mile under water, so you're talking about total darkness and heavy pressure. That's why BP is having such trouble capping the wellhead. Sunlight can't penetrate the water past 1,500 feet.
At 5,000 feet below sea level, there is extreme water pressure. We're talking 2,300 pounds per square inch, enough pressure to crush a submarine.
And the water is near freezing at that depth. Normally the water temperature is 70 degrees or more on the surface this time of year. This water is 40 degrees.
The Obama administration faces questions from lawmakers about the Gulf Coast oil spill. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is testifying right now before the House Natural Resources Committee. He says the administration is determined to make sure BP is held accountable and more safeguards are put in place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEN SALAZAR, SECRETARY, INTERIOR DEPARTMENT: It is our job then as the United States government to make sure that BP does the job that it is required to do by law. And that has been a role which I and Secretary Napolitano and others have been playing over the last 36 or 37 days, making sure that BP lives up to the requirements that it has under the law.
Now, as I look ahead, it is also important not only that this problem is fixed, but that this problem never happens again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Another oil spill to tell you about. This one in Alaska.
Several thousand barrels of crude spilled into a containment area along the Alaska pipeline south of Fairbanks. Authorities say an open valve at a pump station allowed oil to overflow a tank. The contamination is set to be limited to the containment area.
On our blog, we asked you, "What should be done about the oil mess in the Gulf?" Here's how some of you responded.
David says, "Treat it like a nuclear plant accident. Put the NRC (the Nuclear Regulatory Commission) in charge. They are the most technical people the government has." Dorothy's suggestion, listen to this: "The Navy has submarines that weigh thousands of tons. Why not park one on top of the spill? Leave it there until they get the solution in hand or bury it in concrete."
Phil says, "Let's launch one less shuttle and get the NASA guys involved."
And finally, from Rick, "All decision-making executives" -- oh, man -- "All decision-making government officials should be placed two apiece in a skiff with 50 rolls of paper towels and shoved into the affected marshes to wipe off reeds and skim oil."
Wow. Just tar oil and feather all the execs, huh? All of them.
Let's keep the conversation going at our blog page, CNN.com/Tony. And later we will air some of your phone calls on this subject.
Plugging the leak -- an expert shows us how to cork an oil well almost a mile underneath the Gulf of Mexico.
Investors shake off the euro jitters, at least for the morning. And the Dow, as you can see, in positive territory, up 78 points.
We are following these numbers for you throughout the day, throughout the morning, of course, right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: So, BP preparing to plug the massive Gulf oil leak with 50,000 barrels of mud. Not your regular garden variety type. The so- called top kill maneuver requires heavy drilling mud and cement.
Let's get some more details on this procedure. Don Van Nieuwenhuise -- Don, I've got to go slow with your name -- is professor of Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Houston.
Don, it's good to see you. Thanks for your time.
PROF. DON VAN NIEUWENHUISE, PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: How are you doing there?
HARRIS: Yes, I'm good, good, good.
So, we talked this morning, and I want you to make this explainer really crazy simple for everyone at home who is watching this. There is a hole in the ground, and then we've got this tuning fork contraption -- we're going to put pictures up and everything else -- with spokes on either side of the center spoke where all of the oil is gushing from the ground, past the faulty blowout preventer, through the riser, and out into the waters of the Gulf.
Now, explain what BP is going to attempt to do with this top kill procedure.
NEIUWENHUISE: What they're trying to do with the top kill procedure in this particular case is that they have two major flow lines leading from the manifold, ,and they'll be pumping mud at very high pressure into it. And the top flow line, they'll probably push in very, very high pressure mud which will form a dynamic seal on the top of a temporary dynamic seal on the top of the blowout preventer. And at the same time, they'll pump water in the lower flow line with mud, heavy muds, and those heavy muds will be pushed down the wellbore because the dynamic seal above it is presumed to be able to hold it in place.
HARRIS: All right. Let me stop you. Let me stop you. Let me stop you. Let me stop you.
So, the manifold is on the sea floor?
NEIUWENHUISE: Yes, the manifold is on the sea floor, and the manifold will be receiving mud from the ship above. And the manifold is able to send the pumped and pressurized mud into different flow lines. And on the blowout preventer, to make it simple, there's one on the right and there's one on the left.
HARRIS: There we go. There we go.
NEIUWENHUISE: The blowout preventer has a flow line on the right. The one on the right will be injecting on the upper part of the blowout preventer. And that will form a dynamic seal, because the pressure will be too great for the pressure of the well to overcome it. But it will also be greater than the pressure of the water above it, which means that, immediately, mud will start to escape from the riser on the ocean floor.
HARRIS: OK. So, ,this idea of this dynamic seal is essentially doing the work that the blowout preventer would have done when there is a problem. And what did you describe this morning? The rams would have closed off and sealed off the oil flow, correct?
NEIUWENHUISE: Yes. Normally the blowout preventer has several sets of rams, and the rams are designed to -- they're actually called sheer rams because they sheer the pipe. And you also have annular rams which are round-type devices that actually clamp down on the pipe.
And when you clamp down on the pipe, then that also seals it. But none of these annular seals or rams are working. But they also presume that they are partially activated, and that the partially activated rams will constrict the flow of the mud out of the top of the blowout preventer and into the riser, which will create, in a sense, a little more friction and a little bit of help --
HARRIS: Yes.
NEIUWENHUISE: -- to help maintain that dynamic seal from the upper layer. We'll have a mud flow coming straight into the pipe, and that mud flow coming straight into the blowout preventer will go up and it will go down, but it will mostly go up because the pressure of the water is less. But it will form a dynamic seal from water coming in from -- excuse me -- mud coming in from the left, which will be forced down the wellbore. And the object is to get a large column of mud into the wellbore, because a large column of mud will create a tremendous amount of pressure on the reservoir where the oil and gas is coming from, and it will hold it in place and they'll be able to control it.
HARRIS: That's good, Don.
OK. So, BP says it is running final tests to determine if they can go ahead with this today.
What kind of test and to determine what?
NEIUWENHUISE: Well, I don't have all of the direct information available on what kinds of problems they have, but obviously some of the weak links that they have right now might be the joints and the flow lines that they're using, because they are part of a damaged blowout preventer. And they're going to have to force mud through those lines with excessive pressure, and that excessive pressure could actually rupture or further damage some of the joints in the blowout preventer. And so they're probably going to be pulsing pressure just to see how things are working out and whether they're going to be able to withstand the pressures required.
HARRIS: Don, will this work?
NEIUWENHUISE: Excuse me?
HARRIS: Don, will this work?
NEIUWENHUISE: I would guess that they're probably right, it's a 60 percent to 70 percent chance. Things that are working in their favor are the dynamic seal could hold and should hold. But on the other hand, above the blowout preventer you have about 2,300 pounds per square inch, but the wellbore itself is probably pushing a lot harder than that, more closely to 4,000 or 5,000 PSI.
And, you know, if you're a gambling man, you'd bet on the 5,000 PSI over the 2,500 PSI, but this is a very clever and crafty idea to develop a dynamic seal. And so they've obviously got some very good scientists working on this to try to resolve this problem in a very complicated manner. But at the end of the day, they're just trying to, with this dynamic seal, replace what they don't have with the rams that are not working.
HARRIS: What is your take on this? I mean, we're getting a lot of criticism from all corners, and I understand the frustration over what's going on in the Gulf. And these pictures are just devastating of all of this oil spewing out of that hole in the ground.
Is it your sense that the best minds are working on this and that they're doing everything possible to cap this thing?
NEIUWENHUISE: What I've seen is that they've put a lot of energy into this. And, of course, people are very impatient, and I can understand that, because the damage is horrific. And I agree with what a lot of other commentators have said, that we really need to have a quicker response to this sort of thing.
We need to avoid the environmental damage as fast as we can, and the best way to do that is to have a quicker response. But having said that, an awful lot of equipment, an awful lot of tools have already been prepared in the past. They're bringing them on line.
They have a small fleet, essentially, over the blowout right now to handle this issue. So there's been an awful lot of energy and effort put into it, ,and a lot of intelligent people have put a lot of overtime hours into this to try to make sure that it happens. And the oil industry really does have a pretty powerful bank of people in terms of intelligence.
Again, our focus is on the wellbore. It's on maintaining these things and making sure that these safety features that we have with the blowout preventers actually work, and also that we follow the rules when we operate these blowout preventers. You need to make sure that you don't cut corners when a hazard like this could be the outcome.
HARRIS: That's pretty comprehensive.
Do Van Neiuwenhuise is a professor of Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Houston.
Don, appreciate it. Good to see you. Thank you, sir.
NEIUWENHUISE: Thank you.
HARRIS: We want to get some of your comments on the Gulf oil leak. We asked you to call in to our NEWSROOM viewer hotline. Here's what some of you had to say.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the government is focused on stopping or plugging the leak, when, in fact, I think it would be a lot easier to just be able to put a channel around the leak, channel the oil into receptacles above the surface, and keep it from furthering throughout the estuary and throughout the Gulf.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe that everybody who has an idea of plugging this hole should be lined up and straight to that leak. And every idea should be put into test until the leak is plugged. And that will work. Give out a reward to the first one to plug it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just wondering if they couldn't use some of the cheese cloth like they cover tobacco beds here in Kentucky to help soak up some of that oil in the Gulf. I mean, just an idea of mine, so take it for what it's worth.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They need to put a pipe in a pipe like an extruder when they go down to plug this leak. The gas will be able to travel back up outside of the pipe while the concrete is traveling down in the smaller pipe
(END AUDIO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(NEWSBREAK)
HARRIS: And Space Shuttle Atlantis returned to Florida a little over two hours ago. It was the 32nd mission for Atlantis, its final scheduled space flight before the shuttle fleet is retired in September.
Got to tell you, CNN's John Zarrella watched the landing this morning. He looks ahead to the shuttle fleet's retirement years.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As they rocket to space, the astronauts watch the world fall away below them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Getting RPM, three, two, one, mark.
ZARRELLA: Discovery does a somersault as it approaches the space station. Nearly 30 years of these "oh, wow" moments almost over. The end of this year or sometime next, the last shuttle will fly.
So what do you do with three old orbiters? Heck, Atlantis has got 120 million miles on her. If you're NASA, you can't get all teary-eyed and nostalgic. You've got to unload those old clunkers and move on; put a for-sale sign on Atlantis and Discovery and Endeavour.
(on camera): So you've got to build a building right here that would enclose the space shuttle for a bit, it's got to be a temperature-controlled building, right?
BILL MOORE, KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, VISITOR COMPLEX: Has to be all up to artifact standards but more than just the building for the shuttle, we have to tell the story.
ZARRELLA: Bill Moore heads the privately-run Visitors Complex at the Kennedy Space Center. They are one of at least a dozen suitors ready, in fact, eager to fork over to NASA $28.8 million for an orbiter.
ALLARD BEUTEL, NASA SPOKESMAN: We're not selling them remember, this is what it's going to cost to get it cleaned up and make it safe to display and then to actually get it there.
ZARRELLA: You've got almost $30 million ready to hand that check to them.
MOORE: Between our cash and the loan arrangements, we could take the shuttle tomorrow and get ready to go.
ZARRELLA: There is no real rush, space agency officials say, to announce who gets which one because the orbiters are still flying. NASA has offered Discovery the oldest in the fleet to the Smithsonian. Museum officials there told us questions about cost, "have not been resolved, although the museum is exploring options."
One orbiter option is the Big Apple. Folks at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum say more people would see it here than anywhere else. They estimate a 30 percent increase in attendance.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We figure over 300,000 people additional to the Intrepid to New York City. Couple that with the $106 million in economic benefits, we think that's a pretty good deal.
ZARRELLA: Landing one of history's first space planes would certainly qualify as a pretty good deal.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ZARRELLA: A pretty good deal for sure. These orbiters, at $28.8 million, are actually a bargain. When they were built out in Downey, California, and Atlantis was built in 1985, delivered to NASA, $1 billion, Tony. Each of the orbiters cost $1 billion.
HARRIS: Hey, John, look, I've got a couple of thoughts here.
First of all, is this really Atlantis' last flight? And if it is, what are we going to do when this program is retired for good? I mean, all of that technology, can we figure out a way to make a little money on it, get some dollars back into the Treasury here?
ZARRELLA: Well, you know, that's what NASA is hoping to do, with at least getting the $28.8 million per orbiter back. So they'll get some money back and put it towards -- you know, back to the Treasury, future programs.
And the question about, is this Atlantis' last flight? Well, that's a little bit fuzzy.
NASA's going to keep Atlantis in its hip pocket, because what they like to do is have one orbiter just in case on one of the last two flights there might be some emergency. They have one they can roll out to the pad and what they call launch on need just in case.
And then there's also the possibility they might add one additional flight. And that would be some time next year. And if that's the case, it's possible, although it's not certain, that Atlantis could be the one used for that flight.
So, still, although NASA is saying this is it, Atlantis is done, still a couple of wildcards out there -- Tony.
HARRIS: OK. You ready for a wild one out of nowhere for you, John?
ZARRELLA: Yes.
HARRIS: So, we had a blogger who sent us a note to our blog and asked the question, "Can a NASA scientist fix this, cap this oil well in the Gulf?"
Now, what do you think about that? And if you don't know the answer, maybe you can find out for our viewer?
ZARRELLA: I can tell you this much -- I talked to NASA officials the other day about what their level of participation is, and what they have been doing is flying reconnaissance flights with the U.S. Geological Survey over the area. And they are actually trying to use some technologies to document, for the first time ever, exactly how much oil is on the surface.
And they're doing that. And they're also -- NASA is working on -- they took flights over before the oil reached the shore, and then they're going to fly over after and get an idea of exactly what the impact has been.
So that's the level of NASA's involvement. So, I sort of answered your question.
HARRIS: You really did. You really did. And our viewers are always asking smart questions.
John, appreciate it. Good to see you, sir. Thanks.
We have got a big announcement expected from Facebook today. But will it help limit your personal information to just your friends? Josh Levs takes apart those confusing privacy settings in just a moment.
We're back here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: All right. Let's do this -- let's get to Bonnie Schneider now in the Severe Weather Center.
And Bonnie, look, maybe you can give us a view of this oil spill again. Let's start in the Gulf, OK?
BONNIE SCHNEIDER, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, absolutely.
HARRIS: Because BP is going to attempt at some point here, maybe today, maybe tomorrow, but soon, to cap that oil well --
SCHNEIDER: Right.
HARRIS: -- that wellhead.
So what is this that you have for us?
SCHNEIDER: This is a picture from NASA just taken about 48 hours ago.
HARRIS: OK.
SCHNEIDER: And it shows you what it looks like from outer space. And if you're wondering what's what, well, the thicker area of the oil slick is indicated by the brighter white color, and that's because when the sun reflects on the oil-covered water, it's brighter. So, that image pops up more when you look at it as a satellite perspective.
That's not so see that we're not seeing oil where you have areas further off to the south and to the north here. This is likely to sheen. Then we also have darker areas in here. So what that means is that we're seeing an area where we could have controlled burns so you're not getting the brightness that you're seeing in other areas.
Now, looking at it from a perspective of Google Earth, this is interesting because you can see where the thick oil has already worked its way onshore in the marshlands of Louisiana. We're zooming in now because I want to show you the topography here, and you can see the inlets. And it's just incredible because there's so many nooks and areas for the oil to seep in. That makes it even more complex to remove. And, of course, with the oil still coming in, it really makes it futile at this point because there could be more ahead.
Another thing I want to point out, Tony, is the weather in the area, because we've had some volatility with thunderstorms, some severe weather breaking out right here at the mouth of Mississippi. Most of these thunderstorms, while they are pushing offshore, a lot of them have been dying out. We're getting a burst of rain, a little bit of lightning, and then it's over.
Hopefully the thunderstorms won't inhibit what's happening --
HARRIS: Pushing offshore.
SCHNEIDER: Pushing offshore but then not really lasting that long. So they are there and it's something to be mindful of. But it doesn't look like we're seeing a huge deluge of rain.
HARRIS: OK. Bonnie, thank you very much.
President Obama taking heat as the oil leak crisis in the Gulf drags on. Find out what the President is doing in response to the catastrophe. We're live at the White House next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. I think we have a pretty cool way to show you what's going on with the oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico. All right. We're keeping an eye, obviously, on the live feed.
This is the live feed from inside a Senate hearing room, right? And there you go. But this is a close-up shot of the top of the blowout preventer, right? That has absolutely failed here. And this is one, just one pipe from the blowout preventer that has kinked up, as you can see here. And now you've got oil spewing out of four different holes in that kinked pipe at the top of the blowout preventer.
Man, it gives you a sense of how complicated this is going to be to stop this oil coming out of, at least in this case, four different holes in one pipe at the top of the blowout preventer? Pretty cool picture. OK. I just wanted to show that to you. The top executive at BP today defending his company's response to the slow motion disaster. CEO Tony Hayward talked with CNN's "AMERICAN MORNING."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN ROBERTS, CNN ANCHOR: Is it safe to say, Mr. Hayward, that the oil industry has pushed the boundaries of drilling, but you haven't made similar advancements in disaster preparedness?
TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: I think what this has demonstrated is whilst very significant progress has been made in terms of surface response, there is clearly the need to have much more preparedness with respect to subsea response. That is undoubtedly one of the big lessons from this incident.
ROBERTS: Some people have raised the issue of, were you trying to keep costs down? Were you trying to cut corners?
Is that why there wasn't an adequate disaster preparedness response in place?
HAYWARD: I don't think this has got anything to do with costs, frankly. As I said, the industry has been exploring for 25 years, never had to contend with this.
The critical issue is what was believed to be the ultimate fail- safe device has failed. We had assembled the world's biggest fleet of sub-sea intervention capability a very short benefit of time. With the benefit of hindsight it would have clearly have been good to have had that ready to go from Day One. And that is something that the industry will undoubtedly need to do, should do, and will probably be required to have in the future.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. Some of you are highly critical of the federal government's response to the Gulf oil leak.
We are hearing from you through your iReports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like Wall Street, leaving it up to them to write their own financial regulation, which has what it appears to have been. We're leaving the oil companies in charge to solve the problem. It's been over a month. How much longer are we going to wait? How many more jobs do we have to lose and how much of our environment has to be destroyed before Washington will step up and do what we hired them to do?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: OK. President Obama plans to head to the Gulf on Friday for a first hand look at the crisis response.
Live now to CNN's White House correspondent Dan Lothian.
Dan, is this trip a way -- I would think the answer to this is yes -- to respond to the incoming the administration is taking on its response?
DAN LOTHIAN, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Tony, the White House will frame it as a chance for the President to again see the operation there first hand.
As you know, this is the second time now that the President will get a chance to go to the Gulf since that explosion happened more than a month ago. So he will be able to talk to officials there on the ground and get a ground and get a sense of the entire scope of the operations. Hopefully, at least what they're hoping here at the White House is by the time he gets there, that this operation -- this top kill -- will be successful. Nonetheless, they are planning for whatever scenario they face and the President wants to go there to see what's going on, again, first hand.
But, Tony, I can also tell you that tomorrow the President will announce plans to strengthen inspections and also tighten safety regulations in offshore drilling. This comes out of that 30-day review which the President ordered shortly after the oil started gushing into the Gulf. He will make this announcement here at the White House, also take questions from reporters tomorrow.
This operation, at least according to the White House, still remains in the hands of BP, but the administration is very much actively involved. Nonetheless, there is still a lot of frustration here that more than a month after oil started gushing at the Gulf, this crisis continued.
And we heard some of that frustration yesterday from President Obama as he was out doing some fund raising on the west coast.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There's not a person here who has just felt that sense of despair in watching the broadcasts about the oil spill down in the Gulf. Nobody is more upset than me because ultimately, like any president, when this happens on your watch, then every day you are thinking how does this get solved?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LOTHIAN: Tony, the President pointed out that more than 1,000 people from his administration are there in the Gulf from advisers, legal advisers, to equipment that also has gone along with all these people. They're trying to show certainly that this administration is on top of this situation. They've been on top from the very beginning. But certainly a lot of criticism coming from those who believe this administration could have done a lot more, a lot sooner.
HARRIS: All right. Dan Lothian at the White House for us. Dan, appreciate it. Thank you.
HARRIS: $16 billion in profits last year. $16 billion. How cleaning up the Gulf Coast will hit BP's bottom line.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: CNN, of course, is your source for financial news. Looking at the lead story on CNNMoney.com. The picture here is of Elizabeth Warren, a frequent guest on this program, who is really an advocate for us, the American people. She chairs the Congressional Oversight Panel and she says AIG was Frankenstein. If you want to know more about her testimony, just go to CNNMoney.com.
(BUSINESS HEADLINES)
HARRIS: We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: OK. Watch for it. It's coming a big announcement from Facebook on keeping your information more private. What is changing?
Josh Levs, is this a natural for him or what? He is all over this.
What do we know here, Josh?
JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We've got a team of people, Tony. Me and some people on CNN.com, who are just keeping an eye on Facebook all day long. We've been in touch with the company, we're waiting -- because, you know, they seem to announce changes every couple of weeks.
HARRIS: Yes.
LEVS: But what's happening now is in direct response to a lot of complaints, and Facebook itself acknowledging that there are problems and they're saying what's happening today is designed to help all of these people.
Keep in mind, folks, the scope of this -- 450 million people are on Facebook. And it was just a couple of months ago that I was saying 300 million. It just keeps growing and growing. That's how significant this is. We don't know the specifics, we do know some topic everyone's watching for. Look for this.
The first is what will happen to your default settings? Will your setting now be set up in a way so even if you're not an expert on all of this, you're trying to figure out what to do, it automatically gives you maximum privacy at the beginning?
HARRIS: Yes.
LEVS: Opt-in, not out. What happened recently was Facebook hooked up with a few specific partners out there. Not CNN, but some others. And if you sign into Facebook and then you went to one of these web sites it automatically pulled some information and you had to opt out. Some people including some senators, say that's wrong. It shouldn't be like that. You should always have to opt-in. So you know when you're going to a web site before it pulls information.
Third party data control. Basically the idea here is, what kind of information about you do all these companies access when they get there.? And the last one is simplicity. This is something Facebook has been talking about. We have a sound bite, Tony, from a conversation you had earlier this week with a technology expert about why simplicity is so important.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KATE LINENDOLL, TECHNOLOGY EXPERT: 400 million user on Facebook. These are not 400 million tech experts. And that's the problem. We have people here that aren't tech savvy. And to go into your settings and to try to explain to somebody how to opt out, you're already opted in, in certain settings, and how not to share all that personal information. Listen, it comes back down to the core message here: If you don't want something on a billboard in the middle of Times Square do, not post it on the web.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEVS: And that is true. No matter what they do today, the fact is when you put something out there the information can get out there. And this is what Facebook had said, Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO, "We just missed the mark. We have heard the feedback. There needs to be a simpler way to control your information."
That simpler way, Tony, is what we're all watching for today.
HARRIS: Boy, that Katie Linendoll, right? Two of you together, that's powerful stuff. Yes, yes, yes.
All right, Josh, appreciate it. Thank you.
We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARRIS: Entrepreneurs. A pitch what they hope will be the next big thing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With gift count, they're available. It's 24/7. It's automatic. You walk up to the cab, you're done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what if I told you that just by drinking wine you could uplift and educate while reducing poverty and equality?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARRIS: Hey, when are we airing this piece? This is good stuff. Investors listen for who has the right stuff in this new economy. And these are just college students. It is first in our Next Big Thing series.
OK. It's coming up next hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM.
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HARRIS: Got to tell you, I love when we get these opportunities to be totally transparent about our operation. And this morning in our morning meeting for this program we got a bit of a heads up that Rob Marciano was attempting to get on a boat and get out into essentially the middle of the Gulf to take a look at the oil spill.
And we thought we might get an opportunity to get him on a beeper line. And Rob is available right now.
Rob, if you would, tell us where you are and what you're seeing so far.
ROB MARCIANO, AMS METEOROLOGIST (via telephone): Well, Tony, we are going directly to the spill site to not only check out the oil and take some samples with some scientists here with the National Wildlife Federation, but we had some rough weather.
So we're right now we're about 10 miles south of South Pass and that will put us 50 miles due west of the center of the spill. But being even that far away, the amount of oil that we're sitting in right now is indescribable. Thick, dark, dark brown, almost black- like oil that is layered on top of layer here along the water. And the six-boat armada that we have with us, every single hull is completely caked in this thick oil that will have to be washed off with some sort of paint thinner before we even get back to harbor.
We've seen some disturbing things like small wildlife floating in this oil. We just saw a small shark that was completely disoriented, swimming around in this oil. And words can't describe it. We're all now wearing ventilating masks because of the fumes and the most shocking part about this, Tony, is we're still 50 miles from the center of this slick and the oil that we've encountered now looks like it is fresh out of the well.
HARRIS: Rob, let me tap into what I hear in your voice here, because you've been in this area for a couple of weeks now and you've seen the oil start to move into some of the marshlands and the estuaries. And now what you're describing is the thickest of this oil. And it sounds like it's pretty devastating, what you're seeing.
MARCIANO: It is. I see it for miles.
We came through a lake sheen to begin with and the rainbow sheen, which is a little bit thicker. We came through what seemed to be either weathered or dispersed oil, which disturbingly with that is it goes below the surface in chunks as far as the eye the see, the depth. So that's the other disturbing part.
Then the thickest oil that we've seen just is mind-boggling. The way the boat is rocking right now is not like (AUDIO GAP) like we saw earlier, but the oil has actually smoothed the water down almost like we're rocking back in some sort of putty or light Jello. It is a surreal, surreal thing.
Yesterday, as you mentioned, Tony, we were out checking out the wild land, the wetlands that were directly effected by the oil. The oil in those areas pretty much came in and went out and certainly were in where it is right now. And it is -- between the smell and the sights and the expansion of this -- it is truly a sight to behold.
I'll tell you one thing I haven't seen, Tony, and right now I am panning around the entire horizon, including our entire journey out here, I haven't seem one skimmer. I haven't seen one vessel that would be charged to try to clean up some of this mess.
HARRIS: Rob, you took the thought right out of my head.
I want to ask you, from where you are, your vantage point right now, can you also see the efforts underway to disperse this, to break this up, to skim the oil?
MARCIANO: I haven't seen any efforts to do that. Now, granted, we're on the western edge of this (INAUDIBLE) and you know it's thousands of square miles. But in our journey out here, 10-mile journey and now, of course, I can see at least the 17 miles in all directions, we haven't seen anything. We haven't seen any sorts of planes flying out to disperse.
Granted, they (INAUDIBLE) more of a light (INAUDIBLE) that we're seeing (INAUDIBLE) some type of disbursement. We have seen either weathered and/or dispersed oil in our journey out here. But what I'm sitting in right now is very weathered, definitely not dispersed. And again, looks like it's fresh from the pipes.
HARRIS: One more quick question, Rob, before I lose you here. The vessels that you are describing being out there on the water with you, are they just positioned there? I imagine they have responsibilities that they want to carry out.
What are they doing there?
MARCIANO: These are six vessels, that are basically charter fishing boats that have been chartered by the National Wildlife Federation. And they have gotten together a team of scientists to come out here and take samples of the oil, oil dispersants, water mixture, and bring that oil back to lab and see what kind of chemical makeup there is. And see what kind of -- in fact, either and/or oil would have on some of the wildlife here.
I can tell you each expert/scientist that I am with has a very, very distraught and painful look on their face now that we're in the thick of this stuff.
HARRIS: Good reporting. Rob Marciano for us.
Rob, if you get anything additional to share with us, just call back and we'll get you on the air immediately.
