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The View From the Gulf of Mexico; BP Deciding on Top Kill Maneuver; High Anxiety on Korean Peninsula; Learning from Valdez Spill; Charting the Spread of the Spill; Coast Guard Greenlights Top Kill; Boycotts Target BP; Web Privacy and Time Wasters

Aired May 26, 2010 - 12:02   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Waiting for word on the top kill maneuver. BP running final tests, we're told, right now to determine whether to start trying to plug the oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico with heavy mud.

We are bringing you live pictures -- you see them there over my shoulder -- of the site about a mile under water. This operation never done at that depth.

Let's get you straight to our Ed Lavandera. He's in Grand Isle, Louisiana.

And Ed, we talked an hour ago about this. What's the update from BP, what you're hearing as to when this operation might start?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the latest we had heard from the chief executive at BP, Tony Hayward, is that he was going to go back and meet with his experts, the scientists and the experts at BP, to figure out whether or not they could move forward with the top kill. We had anticipated that perhaps there was a chance that they would have started this process earlier this morning, but that isn't the case.

So they are trying to figure out whether or not all of the analysis and the work that they've been doing to set up whether or not the blowout preventer, that big piece of machinery on the bottom of the ocean floor where this oil well is, which is the key piece of equipment that all of the drilling mud and the cement will be blasted through to seal up this well, if indeed they can even do that. They've been doing testing on that to see whether or not that blowout preventer could even withstand this process.

So we are waiting to hear from the chief executive of BP as to whether or not they will move forward with the top kill process. But even if they do, Tony, we must stress this is a process that is not a guaranteed effort.

HARRIS: Absolutely.

LAVANDERA: Let's listen to a little bit of what Tony Hayward told us this morning about where they are in this process of moving ahead in the top kill effort.

(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: Tony, what's that Tony Hayward told us a few hours ago. So we imagine that during this these last few hours, he's been meeting with the folks that he needs to meet with at headquarters in Houston to figure out what they're going to do. So we anticipate here, in the not too distant future, in the coming hours, perhaps, to get an update as to what will happen in this top kill process throughout today, or whether or not this is going to perhaps stretch into tomorrow.

HARRIS: Well, we know that there's a weather system out there in the Gulf, and maybe that's factors into the decision. But, boy, I would really like to know what they're testing for and when we might move forward, what they're trying to determine.

That's Ed Lavandera for us.

HARRIS: Yes. What were you going to say, Ed?

LAVANDERA: I was going to say that was a good point. I was going to say it's a good point.

The weather here today, extremely volatile. Our live shot location, this is the beach on Grand Isle that has been shut down.

We've gone through quite a blast of weather. And there's another weather system just out there toward the direction where that oil rig is. We see it kind of an intense day when it comes to weather today. So that could also very well be an issue.

HARRIS: OK, Ed. Yes, you're right.

Ed Lavandera for us.

Thank you, Ed. Appreciate it.

BP's top executive also discussed the lessons learned from the oil disaster. Here he is once again on 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?

HAYWARD: I think what this has demonstrated is that 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 sub-sea response. That is undoubtedly one of the big lessons from this incident.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK. President Obama will announce tighter safety regulations for offshore drilling tomorrow. An administration official says the president also plans to strengthen inspections of drilling operations.

At a fund-raiser in California last night, the president talked about the frustration over efforts to plug the leak.

(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)

HARRIS: Like much of the country lawmakers in Washington are watching for BP's latest attempt to stop the oil gusher in the Gulf, they're also looking for answers.

Senior Congressional Correspondent Dana Bash joining us now from Capitol Hill with details.

And Dana, I love that monitor. We put it on the air last hour, and I tried to explain this view that senators are getting. I don't know how well I did, but maybe you can explain it for us.

DANA BASH, CNN SR. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is one way that lawmakers are trying to keep tabs on what's going on in the Gulf. And this is actually quite fascinating, because we have been showing for days the one camera that BP is streaming on their Web site and making public. Well, what we have here is something that is not available to the public, but, in fact, only available since last week to Congress.

And the chairwoman of the Environment Committee in the Senate, Barbara Boxer, she and her staff invited us in to get a sense of what they're collecting here. And I just want to show you, because these images are coming in from roving cameras on submarines that are below the surface.

They are run by a company that is contracted by BP. And the images are constantly changing, but we just happen to come to you when we're seeing these two images here, which are very interesting.

At the very top here we were just told is the blowout preventer from the top. You see all of that oil spewing out of the top of the blowout preventer. Down here, the bottom of the blowout preventer. Again, these are images that we can only see here because this is something that the committee has a password for that they can look at.

And why is this important? First of all, they say just for pure transparency. But another reason, it is because of pure dollars and cents.

And the taxpayers are paying a lot of money for this cleanup. And they are anticipating here in Congress and at the Department of Justice to have a lot of lawsuits.

We've been talking about the cost of all this, ultimately. And this is one way they're telling us here that members of Congress -- and ultimately, they can give this information to the Department of Justice -- to record exactly how much oil is leaking out. And the reason that's important is because it could be about $4,300 per barrel that is the cost of this.

Now, BP is saying that it's spewing about 5,000 barrels per day, but a lot of estimates say it's going to be a lot more than that. And what they can do by monitoring this and recording this and holding on to it is actually trying to get the real record of how much oil is spilling out of there.

And very interesting. Earlier -- the images changed, but earlier we actually did see some images of what would appear to be them preparing for this top kill, cleaning off the blowout preventer that obviously has not been working.

So this is something that only Congress has gotten permission for, but we've been able to show it to you today.

HARRIS: No, that's terrific.

So, once again, that is the two images there, the first two images, the top of the blowout preventer, and then the bottom of the blowout preventer?

Look at that.

BASH: Right. This is the top of the blowout preventer, this is the bottom of the blowout preventer.

Now, how do we know this? Another interesting tidbit. Members of the committee staff here, they are able to call down to Oceaneering Video.

They are the contractor for BP. They are the ones who are monitoring feeds and have access to exactly what these cameras down below, way below, inside the ocean, are looking at.

So, as these things change, they're able to call and say what is this exactly that we're looking at? And they try to give them real- time information about what exactly they're looking at.

HARRIS: Good stuff. Dana, appreciate it. Man, what a view. Thank you. All right. Your comments are literally pouring in about how to tackle this mess in the Gulf. We asked you earlier what you think should be done.

Wayne says, "The government is not omnipotent. They don't have the personnel, equipment or expertise to plug the leak. Maybe we should be looking to other private companies for assistance."

And this from Ardie and Patty: "We can place an orbiting, working station in space, millions of miles away, but we can't plug an oil leak one mile deep? Something is wrong with this picture."

Let's keep the conversation going. Just send us your thoughts, your suggestions, comments to my blog. There's the address: CNN.com/Tony.

While you are sending in your solutions, I'll get details from an expert on BP's plan to plug that gusher in the Gulf.

First, though, our "Random Moment" in 90 seconds.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, things that tip over, they make really first-rate "Random Moments of the Day."

Watch the thief in the plaid shirt here. He doesn't have time to blake into the convenience store ATM. Right? So he tries to take it with him. Right?

Let's see it. Let's see it right here.

All right. Pretty good thing he's got all of that padding under the plaid shirt. The machine just tips over on him.

And watch the stroller in the upper right corner of your screen. A grandmother in Australia turns away for just a split second and baby tips on to the tracks.

How about this? The boy had a few cuts on his face, but is otherwise OK. This very same near-disaster happened to another baby in Melbourne last October with the same outcome.

One last tip: more "Random Moments" tomorrow.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Look at that. That's something, isn't it?

BP gives its top kill maneuver a 60 to 70 percent chance of success. And here's how the procedure is supposed to work.

Crews will inject a drilling mud into the blowout preventer. That's a device that was supposed to stop the oil from gushing into the Gulf. Then cement would be used to plug the leak. Now, the depth of the Gulf leak is what makes 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 so much trouble capping the wellhead.

Sunlight can't penetrate the water past 1,500 feet. You probably knew that. 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 in the 70s on the surface this time of year. The water is 40 degrees.

Let's get more details on this procedure. Don Van Neiuwenhuise is professor of Petroleum Geoscience at the University of Houston.

Don, good to see you again.

Explain what BP -- walk us through this -- is going to attempt with this top kill procedure.

PROF. DON VAN NEIUWENHUISE, PETROLEUM GEOSCIENCE, UNIVERSITY OF HOUSTON: Basically, they're going to be using drilling mud or drilling fluids that they will be pumping from the surface down through a riser pipe, just like you would into a wellbore, into a manifold which is able to send the fluids, the drilling fluids, into two pipes into the blowout preventer, and these two feed lines -- one is on the right and one is on the left. The one on the right is going to be above the one on the left, and they're going to try to force enough pressure through that feed line to create a dynamic seal so that when they push the fluid in the left flow line, the fluid will actually go down the wellbore.

HARRIS: Yes.

Hey, Roger, do me a favor here as we talk to Don. Let's see -- can we pull the picture full of the oil spewing out of that blowout preventer? Yes, that's good.

Don, will you explain the pressures involved here, the competing pressures involved here? Because I've got a crazy image in my head of a blackboard and all kinds of figures and formulas being used to figure out how much pressure to counteract the other -- can you help us understand this a little bit better?

NEIUWENHUISE: Well, in general, the seawater, of course, you put up there is 2,300 pounds per square inch, approximately. And the mud weights that they use would suggest that the pressure coming out of the wellbore is at least double that at 5,000 feet. And because the pressure from the wellbore is greater than the pressure in the ocean, that's why the oil is coming out, escaping out of the wellbore, and escaping out of the cracks in the blowout preventer.

HARRIS: I'm going to jump to the end here right now and ask you if you think -- you've had some experience in doing something similar to this. What are your thoughts on whether or not this can succeed based on your past experience?

NEIUWENHUISE: Well, a lot of times these types of kills will work. You know, there's a pretty high success rate.

Now, every top kill is a little bit different than the next one, because every time you have a blowout, you end up with damaged equipment, and you have to try to figure out a way to use the equipment that you have that survived the damage. And here, ,they're stuck with a couple of flow lines. And what's absolutely critical of them is to make sure that the flow lines don't rupture, and that may be one of the major items that they're testing right now.

HARRIS: And what's the alternative? What's next if this doesn't work? Is it the junk shot?

NEIUWENHUISE: If you have the dynamic seal, and the dynamic seal doesn't work because the pressure is coming out of that flow line will be much greater than seawater -- and one of the things that's going to happen first is that mud will come out of the riser that everybody has the camera trained on. You will see a lot of mud coming out. And that should be expected.

And if the dynamic seal doesn't help force the lower flow line mud into the wellbore, that's when they'll probably try the junk shot to try to clog up and not even -- it doesn't even have to seal it, but just slow down the flow coming out of the top of the riser. If the flow in the top of the riser -- going out of the top of the riser is impeded enough, then that will help the dynamic seal to push the mud down into the wellbore.

HARRIS: OK. Go ahead, Don. I'm sorry.

NEIUWENHUISE: Yes. I was just going to say, at that point, they'll try to get mud to go all the way down the well. And they'll have to maintain this heavy pressure on this right flow line until they have sufficient mud into the wellbore that the mud itself, because it's so heavy, will actually hold the pressure back and they'll have control of the well at that point.

HARRIS: Can I ask you a question that I think maybe a lot of people, not just me, are curious to know the answer to at this point? All right. So you try this, and let's say it doesn't work. We hope that it will.

But if it doesn't, and then the junk shot or whatever else, that doesn't work, what are we looking at then? Are we talking about these relief wells and trying to get in sideways to this thing?

NEIUWENHUISE: Well, at the present point in time they have another backup plan, and it's another type of top kill. And that particular top kill will put a small cap on top of the blowout preventer itself.

HARRIS: That's right.

NEIUWENHUISE: And then after that, the next thing that they will do is a kill well. And the relief wells or kill wells, as we call them in industry, will need to be drilled to ensure that the wellbore is sufficiently cemented from bottom, all the way up to the top.

Now, if they do manage to get cement in to the wellbore through this top kill that they're doing, then they may not have to do that procedure, but they may want to intersect that well anyway just to make sure that everything is safe.

HARRIS: Don, good information. Appreciate it, last hour, this hour as well. And let's have you back as we get some kind of data on how well this is or isn't working.

Don, thanks.

NEIUWENHUISE: OK.

HARRIS: The American secretary of state in South Korea today. A time of high anxiety with North Korea over a torpedo ship.

We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(NEWSBREAK)

HARRIS: New chest-bumping from North Korea today. It is threatening to blow up South Korean loudspeakers that are blasting propaganda northward. If bravado turns to bullets, 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea could be caught in the middle.

CNN's John Vause on hot rhetoric and Cold War tension.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As relations between North and South Korea hit a new low, the U.S. secretary of state came to Seoul with reassuring words.

HILLARY CLINTON, SECRETARY OF STATE: We will stand with you in this difficult hour, and we stand with you always.

VAUSE: But even before she arrived, North Korea upped the ante. On state-run television, Pyongyang announced it was cutting all contact with South Korea. "We made clear that we would implement strong, punitive measures if they insulted our dignity," says the news reader. And that includes ending a non-aggression pact, shutting down a joint industrial park, and closing North Korean air space and borders to South Korean flights and ships.

Amid unconfirmed reports North Korea's million-man army has been placed on combat alert, U.S. intelligence says there are no signs of large troop movements, no sign of activity at North Korean missile sites. Pyongyang continues to deny it was responsible for the sinking of the South Korean warship at Cheonan despite a multinational investigation which says it was sunk by this torpedo fired by a North Korean sub. CLINTON: The international independent investigation was objective, the evidence overwhelming. The conclusion, inescapable. This was an unacceptable provocation by North Korea.

VAUSE: But Beijing is not willing to accept the outcome of that investigation. Despite days of lobbying by the secretary of state, Chinese officials are non-committal at best.

(on camera): And South Korea is talking tough as well, considering naming North Korea a "principal enemy," a term dropped six years ago when relations were improving. Propaganda operations have restarted, broadcasting news and music into North Korea urging soldiers to defect. And South Korea has sent a destroyer to the Korean straits to intercept North Korean ships, and the South Korean navy will begin military exercises on Thursday, all designed to send a clear message to the communist North.

John Vause, CNN, Seoul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(WEATHER REPORT)

HARRIS: You can see the oil gushing out of that broken well. But can you tell how far it is spreading? The new Web site that puts it all into perspective.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Millions of gallons of crude have leaked into the Gulf of Mexico from that damaged oil well. Coastal residents in Louisiana are finding out what that could mean from Alaskans who lived through the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Details now from Bill Capro of CNN affiliate WWL.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL CAPRO, WWL REPORTER (voice-over): There were tears on the bayou as Pointe Aux Chenes residents Gilbert and Gayle Dardar through the shrimp he just caught over the side of his boat. In the middle of his fishing trip, state officials closed the area, so they're afraid to sell or keep the catch.

GAYLE DARDAR, POINTE AUX CHENES RESIDENT: What are we going to do? How are we going to survive?

CAPRO: Gilbert and Gayle wonder what the oil spill will do to the way of life that has supported the Dardar family for three generations.

DARDAR: How am I going to pay my house now that we're almost finished? I'll going to lose everything.

CAPRO: So the Native Americans from south Louisiana met with their counterparts from Alaska to learn about the lasting effects of a major oil spill. And the news was scary.

PATIENCE ANDERSEN-FAULKNER, ALASKAN CITIZENS ADVISORY COUNCIL: You know, you're losing loved ones. Quite a few suicides. I bet you we have, in Cordova, one a year at least, if not two a year.

CAPRO: They shared a lunch of shrimp and crabs as they shared news about oil still polluting Alaska from Exxon Valdez, lost wildlife species and the impact on fishing there.

ANDERSEN-FAULKNER: The times are very, very tough. First of all, we have not got our herring back 21 years later.

CAPRO: So, will they get their fishing back here?

ANDERSEN-FAULKNER: Well, we just got - went out for shrimp for the first time in about 17 years.

DR SHIRLEY LASKA, UNO CENTER FOR HAZARD RESPONSE: It could be the end of fishing in this area. All the types of fishing -- the shrimp and the oysters and the thin (ph) fish and, therefore, the loss of their culture.

CAPRO: Just this morning they discovered oil in the marshes just four miles away from here. It was terribly frightening to find it so close to home. So they met with BP officials to ask for help.

DARDAR: We don't have one inch of boom anywhere along our inner lakes. Not one inch of boom. We rode out there. There is oil. We should have some boom.

NATHAN CHIAVA, BP: We're here to supply them with some absorbent boom. We'll have some out here tomorrow, so that they can go out and protect their tribal lands.

CAPRO: But the biggest worry for fisherman is whether they can stay afloat financially until the area recovers, and that is something their counterparts from Alaska understand.

ANDERSEN-FAULKNER: Well, they'll get their way of life back, but it won't be what they're used to.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: OK, got to tell you, the sheer size and the scope of the oil slick is so huge, it can be difficult at times to wrap your mind around it. Josh is helping us do just that.

You've got a website that you think can help us?

JOSH LEVS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is really cool. This is basically a new application which is technically called a matchup. And what happens is, someone took Google Earth and is mixing it with information about the oil spill.

HARRIS: Oh, OK. LEVS: So let's start off with the very beginning. I'm going to refresh it so we can watch what happens when you first get there. It zooms you into the Gulf region and then it shows you that section and it shows you the oil spill and you can, obviously, change the scale, so if you want to zoom out farther and see it like that, you can.

HARRIS: Very good.

LEVS: Now the key here is you can then take this image.

HARRIS: Oh, man.

LEVS: Yes, we're talking 13,000 square miles. It's massive. You can take this image and layer it on top of a city to compare. So we can jump to Manhattan, which, yes, I know that's not a city, it's part of a city, but Manhattan's an option that's already there. Look at this. So when you look at how it affects New York, basically, you have that size now layered on to a map of the U.S. and you can see how it will cover so much Newark.

HARRIS: Yes, yes.

LEVS: And it goes off into Connecticut. It reached over - I mean through, basically, a swath of the entire tri-state area.

Let's go over to San Francisco and the West Coast and you're going to see how it compares to that city. Boom. Once you get there, it reaches up into Oakland. It reaches over to Sacramento.

HARRIS: Look at that.

LEVS: So wherever you are, what you're doing is you're getting a sense of the scale. And for international viewer, let me show you a couple internationals since we're here.

HARRIS: Are we in Rome or London?

LEVS: Yes, well, what you want to do, Rome or London?

HARRIS: Rome, Rome, Rome, Rome, Rome.

LEVS: Yes, let's go over to Rome.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: So we clicked on Rome. Let me see, we've got to click it again. We'll click on Rome and it should take us over there. And then what we can do is the same thing. Again, it's going to zoom into Rome. It's going to take the image and layer it on top of it.

HARRIS: Oh, this is fascinating.

LEVS: So if this size were compared to that area, you have up to Embutzo (ph) and Latia (ph). I mean so basically you're able to see it here. Click any one of those cities right there.

HARRIS: All right, I'm going to go to Paris.

LEVS: Anything you want. So, there you go. We're zooming over the Paris. It shows you the city and it shows you how huge this is. This, to me, is the best way I've seen so far of understanding this.

HARRIS: Yes, I think you're right.

LEVS: And it's created by someone who's with Google Maps. It's a complicated web address so I put it up for you at my Facebook page and Twitter. Let's show everyone the graphic. I want everyone to see how you can get to it yourself, facebook.com/joshlevscnn. Also Twitter will get you right there.

HARRIS: I'm going to do one more just because everybody's so upset with Washington and Washington's response to this, right?

LEVS: Yes, yes, yes, Tony's going to play again. You know what? And do Washington because also I'm thinking might even reach down to your hometown over there, in part of Maryland.

HARRIS: In Baltimore, right, right.

LEVS: Yes, look at that. I mean, look at that. You're getting all the way up into Baltimore. That's your area. So we can zoom way. Let's just zoom out and you'll be able to see how much it affects that entire region. And into Delaware. That's how huge this is.

HARRIS: That is crazy. And we haven't capped it yet.

LEVS: No -

HARRIS: Let's think about this a week from now.

LEVS: It's gushing.

HARRIS: Right?

LEVS: And even if we tap it, it still keeps spreading.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: I mean we have a long way to go on this.

HARRIS: All right, thanks, Josh.

LEVS: You got it.

HARRIS: Boycotts are supposed to make a statement, right? BP may be hearing about them, but the company is not necessarily hurting from them. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Hey, Chad. Chad Myers is with me here. Can we widen this out or get Chad in the shot as well? We're just getting word from federal on scene coordinator Rear Admiral Mary Landrieu, acting on the validation of government scientists and in consultation with the national incident commander, we're talking about Thad Allen, the Coast Guard.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. Yes.

HARRIS: Has granted approval for BP to begin proceeding with their attempt.

MYERS: Correct. That doesn't mean BP is ready. That just means the government said it's OK, you guys can do it.

HARRIS: OK.

MYERS: When you're ready, you can do it. So, again, with that weather out there in the Gulf, again, you know, they're testing procedures. Just point of clarification.

HARRIS: Sure.

MYERS: This could get a whole lot worse if this goes badly. There could be -

HARRIS: We've heard that already.

MYERS: There could be a lot more oil spewing out of that blowout prevent if this goes wrong because we don't know where -- there's clearly some type of kink in some line. It's either in the blowout preventer that half worked or it's the kink in the riser. If you took this blowout preventer and you literally removed it from the ocean floor thousands, if not tens of thousands of more barrels of oil would be coming out of that well. So if it goes wrong, there are consequences. There are not going to do it if they think there's any chance of it going wrong. They're going to make sure that it's the right time, their pressures are right.

We're going to put a lot of these muds into the ocean anyway. And they're not really mud. It's not dirt and oil. It is a very heavy solution that is heavier, theoretically, than the oil trying to push itself up from this artisan-like well. This is not a well that's being pumped. You know, you think about it, you live in Oklahoma and I worked in Oklahoma City, you see these pumps going on and on. All day long they're pumping the oil out of the ground.

This is coming out naturally. This is coming out with national pressures from down below in the Gulf of Mexico, tens of - I don't know what it was, 18,000 feet down below where, you know, that blowout preventer is where they actually struck the oil. It's coming out because the pressure down there is so great. It's coming out by itself.

And I think if we remove that pressure, remove that BOP, the blowout preventer, or remove that kink in the riser, the numbers and the gallons and the barrels would be significantly more coming out.

HARRIS: Oh, boy.

MYERS: So there you go. They're going to do it right, I hope.

HARRIS: Take your time to do it right in here.

MYERS: Absolutely. Get it right the first time.

HARRIS: OK, so the government has given its approved to go ahead. Now BP, when you're ready.

MYERS: This works on land. There's no question it works on land. But the pressures down below are not the same as on land. As we found out with the top hat.

HARRIS: Yes.

MYERS: As we found out with that other thing, with the hydrates and all that. You know, all these great ideas didn't work at 5,000 feet.

HARRIS: Good stuff, Chad.

MYERS: OK.

HARRIS: Thank you, sir.

OK. BP, as you know, is facing boycotts over the Gulf oil leak, but people will have to do a lot more than avoid gas stations to make a real impact on BP. CNN senior correspondent Allan Chernoff has that story for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLAN CHERNOFF, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Boycott BP is the rallying cry for those fed up with the mess in the Gulf. More than 100,000 people have joined Boycott BP's Facebook page, including Patricia Jarozynski.

PATRICIA JAROZYNSKI, MOTORIST: I won't buy their gas anymore. You know, I won't patronize a company that's destroying our planet.

CHERNOFF: BP's environmental catastrophe has Public Citizen, a consumer advocacy group, calling its first boycott against an energy company.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The boycott sends a clear message that we as American consumers are not going to tolerate corporate illegal activity.

CHERNOFF: There are more than 11,000 BP stations in the U.S., selling over 42 million gallons of gas per day. But BP doesn't own the stations. Independent franchisees are the owners.

CHERNOFF (on camera): Truth is, boycotting BP isn't as easy as many activists may think. BP is one of the biggest companies on the planet, with so many different businesses. So even if you're not buying BP gasoline, you may be putting its Castrol motor oil into your vehicle. And that soda you're drinking today, well the aluminum can, the aluminum may have come from Arco Aluminum. And the road that you're driving on could have been paved with BP asphalt.

CHERNOFF (voice-over): BP says it's working to make amends.

TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: I think this is clearly a major reputational issue for BP. There's no doubt about it. And we are doing everything in our power to respond in the right way.

CHERNOFF: A gas distributor on Florida's Gulf Coast says business is down this week for BP stations by nearly a third. Many BP station owners elsewhere tell CNN business is just fine.

RAJ SINGH, BP FRANCHISE: Business is excellent, yes. We're doing around 12,000 gallons every day.

CHERNOFF: And BP, which generated sales of $241 billion last year, says it has felt no impact from a boycott effort.

Motorist Lisa Patterson (ph) says she favors a boycott, but her local BP is convenient.

LISA PATTERSON, MOTORIST: It's the closest station to my house. I'm extremely disappointed in BP and I think they're not doing nearly enough.

CHERNOFF: Sentiments shared by Eric Peterson.

ERIC PETERSON, MOTORIST: When I actually pulled up I thought, oh, God, BP, you know. But, honestly, is this oil company any worse than any of them?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARRIS: Wow! OK. Let's bring in Allan Chernoff.

Hey, Allan, even if you are boycotting BP gas stations, can you be sure you are not buying BP gasoline?

CHERNOFF: Tony, the truth is, no you cannot. The way the oil business works, there's lots of trading going on. So, for example, if Sunoco is running low on gasoline, the distributor might take some from BP and have that BP gasoline sent over to the Sunoco. That's how the business works, Tony.

HARRIS: Wow! All right, CNN's senior correspondent Allan Chernoff.

We're back in a moment. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK. Let me take you around the world for a little bit for our top stories.

A message for the two Koreas. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calls on North Korea to stop, quote, "its policy of threats." And she reassures South Koreans of U.S. support. Tensions on the Korean peninsula have been rising since the recent sinking of a war ship. South Korea blames the North for it. The North denies it and has cut all ties with the South.

Let's get you state side now. And why not Washington, D.C. In the United States, home sales soared in April. The Census Bureau reports they rocketed almost 15 percent. The main reason, home buyers rushing to claim the huge tax credits that expire at the end of the month.

Let me close that out and get you to Florida. Atlantis returns to earth one last time. The space shuttle is now retired after 25 years, 32 missions and 121 million miles in space.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: OK. I think we have time to do this before we get to the top of the hour and Ali Velshi. We want to get more of your comments on the air on the Gulf oil leak. We asked you to call in to our NEWSROOM viewer hot line. Here's what some of you had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): They should somehow use explosives, underwater demolition or something to just implode that well so it just completely is done away with. No more of the Ruth Goldberg (ph) stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): This is Rosemary. Why do people think the government should fix any of it? When the health care problem was being addressed in Congress, everyone said, oh, we don't need government in our life. Now, BP has a problem out in the Gulf of Mexico and all of a sudden it's supposed to be fixed by the government. This is not the government that needs to fix it. It's BP.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: OK, let's keep the conversation going. Just call me, that handsome guy right there, thanks to Photo Shop. Call me at 1-877-742- 5760 and let's keep the phone lines popping.

Facebook caves on privacy and the Google doodle that gobbled up the work for us. We will take a look at some of the hot topics on the web when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: So, let's do this. Let's take a look at what's buzzing today on the Internet. We know that you're online. We are too. So Facebook it finally listening and are you one of those wasting office time playing Pac-man?

Josh?

LEVS: Guilty.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: It was so awesome, though, that Google version. We'll show it to you in a minute.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: So, first though, the harder news stuff that we're following. And, you know, it could be any minute. We're watching it. We've got a team of people watching here today for the changes coming from Facebook and what they could mean for you and for the more than 400 million, about 450 million people now who are on Facebook.

You hear changes all the time. Today's are supposed to be a really big deal and could affect your privacy. Here's what we're looking for. What will happen to your default settings. This means if you're on Facebook and you don't know how to do all the complicated stuff, what will happen with your information automatically.

Opt in, not out. There are a few websites out there that Facebook has hooked up with. If you sign into Facebook, then you go to one of those few websites. It can automatically pull some information. And what you have to do is opt out. A lot of people are saying, instead you should be told, hey, would you like to opt in.

One more thing to take a look out for here, a third party data control. What do third parties learn about you when you are sharing information at all. And all of it is supposed to be wrapped up in Facebook's promise that things are going to be a lot simpler now. So we have a team watching out for that. When we get any information, we'll post it up at Facebook.

All right. Are you ready for the fun now, Tony?

HARRIS: Sure. Sure, sure, sure, sure.

LEVS: All right. So let's do this. So you all - you probably know last week there was the 30th anniversary of Pac-man.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: And as part of it, Google launched this. And basically what it is, is their home page was turned into a game of Pac-man.

HARRIS: Look at this. Look at this.

LEVS: Well now there's this blog called the rescue time blog that is saying that as a result of all the extra seconds that people spent on this, we lost $120 million in productivity, 4.8 million hours of productivity. I don't care. And I'm pretty sure if Sanjay were here, he would remind us that it's good to take a short break sometimes.

HARRIS: Yes.

LEVS: Plus, it's so cool. And, look, they even have a little Ms. Pac-man now and it's still going.

HARRIS: I loved that game.

LEVS: I'm going to go play it right now. HARRIS: Yes, I love it. I love it.

All right, Josh, thank you, sir.

LEVS: See you, Tony.

HARRIS: The Coast Guard has given BP approval to start the top kill maneuver to try to plug the oil spewing into the Gulf. Ali Velshi is covering this story from all the angles straight ahead for you in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARRIS: Let's take it to the next level. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.