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Fishing Ban Expanded in Gulf of Mexico; Coast Guard Admiral Gives Update on Gulf Efforts; Day 43 of Oil Leak; Al Qaeda Says 'Number Three' Man is Dead; Internal Watchdog Says Justice Department Not Ready for Terrorist Attack; Former VP Al Gore and Wife Tipper Separating; Interview With the Real Life "Iron Man" Elon Musk

Aired June 01, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

TONY HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: It is good to have him back in the air chair. CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Ali Velshi.

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thank you very much for getting us to this point. You have a great afternoon.

I'm Ali Velshi, as Tony said. I'm going to be with you for the next two hours, today and every weekday, taking every important topic we cover a step further. I'm going to try and give you a level of help and detail that's going to help you put your world into context.

Let me get started right now. Here's what I've got on the run down. Day 43 of that gushing oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico. We're expecting live briefings from the Coast Guard and the White House this afternoon. What is the plan now? We'll take a close look at BP's latest move to cap that leak.

Plus, check your municipal fund, check your 401(k). You might be invested in BP without even knowing it. The company has got a big reach. We're going to measure it.

And you might not know his name, but he was one of the inspirations for "Iron Man." Elon Musk is a pioneer on earth and beyond. You're going to meet him right here on this show.

But first, the big story -- boy, the big story today. I wish it wasn't the big story. It's the oil spill. We are in day 43 of this oil spill. Let me tell you what's going on now.

On Saturday, BP announced that its top kill method wasn't going to work. They've pulled out of that after trying it for a few days. Now they are trying something new. This new thing that they're trying is called the LMRP. Some people are referring to it as cut and cap, because they're cutting off the top of the riser and putting a cap on it with a pipe that's attached to it that's going to take it out.

So the last couple of days or so we've been seeing sawing, some clamping. Let me show how what that looks like. Here's a big clamp. I'm -- just imagine this. This is around a pipe that's about -- that's where -- that's where the oil is coming up. They're going to clamp this pipe. They're going to cut it off, and then they're going to put this cap on the riser. Let me show you an animation of how this works. They sheer off the top of this riser. And then they lower this very, very heavy cap over it. So here we go. This is the sheering that you just saw in that picture. This unit's going to sheer it off. You'll see a lot of oil coming out of that when that happens. And then they're going to lower this cap onto it. It's a heavy, heavy cap. The weight of that cap will help this seal. It's not going to be a mechanical seal. It's going to be sealed by weight.

The weight of this thing, plus about 20,000 pounds of lead are going to be included into this thing. And see that pipe off the top? That is going to lead up to a vessel on the surface and hopefully collect all of that oil.

Now, even before this is deployed, BP is already making some changes to it. They're, for instance, going to try and create a floating riser so that, in the event of a hurricane, because hurricane season starts today, they'll be able to disconnect and get the vessel off to safety so that it's not -- it's not out there while there's oil flowing.

Earlier we heard from President Obama in the Rose Garden. He's appointed a blue ribbon commission to find out which went wrong, a commission that's independent of the Coast Guard, independent of the Energy Department, independent of the Interior Department, which leases out these -- these offshore sections to oil companies.

He -- he announced the commission some time ago, but he introduced senator -- Florida senator -- former Florida Senator Bob Graham and former EPA chief William Reilly today. And they are going to get their work going to find out how this happened and how it can be prevented from happening again.

Also, extending the ban on fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. Twenty-six percent of the Gulf of Mexico now off limits to fishing. This is having a major impact on fishers around the gulf, people who fish, people who look for oysters and shrimp. This is a major, major industry for Louisiana. It's one of their biggest industries.

Gary Tuchman is on a boat right now. He's on an air boat, which is headed out for a tour of the wetlands that are being damaged by this oil that has, in some cases, come onshore, in some cases continuing to come onto shore. Thank you for that. Gary Tuchman is out there right now. He's on his way to the tour. I don't know if we've got him -- if he can hear me, because I know it's a loud, loud boat.

But Gary, if you're there, tell us what you're seeing.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Ali, I hear you very well. And as a matter of fact, you said the operative words. It's continuing to inundate the shore where, on the marsh lands just off the coast of Louisiana, in the city of Cocatree (ph) -- it's actually not a city; it's a small town. Cocatree (ph) is about 90 miles driving southwest New Orleans, about 40 miles as the crow flies. And the marsh lands here are continuing to get the oil. We're watching right now as workers hired by BP are in air boats themselves. And what they're doing is they're taking the boom that has been surrounding these marsh lands that for weeks were pure white and pure orange and pure yellow, because the oil hadn't come here yet. But now they've turned brown. And what they're doing is they're picking up the brown soaking boom that was protecting the land, and it's been doing such a good job protecting any more, and putting them into garbage bags and laying out new boom.

And it's so sad as we're watching because we're seeing these marsh lands that have now become completely black on the edges. The boom that is black, that indicates that the oil has spread in the marsh land.

And this is the coast. I mean, we've been talking about for weeks now how the water was coming -- how the oil was coming close to the coast. As a matter of fact, the last time I was here -- I was away for a week last week in Haiti, but I was here just before that. And this exact boom we saw that's pure white, and pure yellow. There was no oil that had reached these lands, these marsh lands at ail. And now they have.

Shrimping season has just begun here. We talked to the shrimpers who have caught virtually nothing. They're trying to catch as much shrimp as they can before things get even worse. But right now the shrimping season is poor.

And as you know, the hurricane season, there's so much concern here that, indeed, if a tropical disturbance, tropical storm or hurricane heads this way things will get even worse. But right now we are seeing the oil come on the marsh land here off the coast of Louisiana.

VELSHI: Gary, the pictures that we were just showing while we were talking, you just took those a little while ago. And I guess it's important for people who are not familiar with that terrain. You're very familiar with it, particularly because of your hurricane coverage. It's not a coach. It's not a beach, like everything else is used to. That water comes in for a long time. Those marsh lands extend some distance south of New Orleans.

And it's a very complicated structure there, because there are people who work those bayous. There are people who work those wetlands, the estuary. This is a very, very important part of the income and the economy of that state.

TUCHMAN: Well, yes, this is very different than most beach states. I mean, Mississippi and Alabama, which certainly are also in danger. They haven't gotten any oil off the coast of Mississippi and Alabama, but they're very vulnerable, and some forecasts show the oil coming very close to Mobile, Alabama, for example, the middle of this week.

But Louisiana is very different. You usually don't come here for beach vacation. There's certainly a lot of coastline. But you're right; it's like the everglades. There's marshes. There's estuaries. There's grasslands and there's shrimping and the fishing at world class here. And people, this is their lives. They've done it for generations. That's why it's such a desperate time here in Louisiana.

VELSHI: All right, Gary. Thanks so much. You're going to be out there getting this story about how this clean-up is going. It's something that so many of our viewers are so interested in. They've said, "Let us know how -- how it's going and whether they're winning against that."

Gary Tuchman in Louisiana. Thank you for that.

We're not going to move on. We're going to move on from this, but we're not leaving this story. Let me tell you, by the way, we're waiting. These are live pictures. We're waiting for a press conference from Admiral Thad Allen, who's going to bring us up to speed. They've coordinated their efforts around Thad Allen, so he's going to tell us exactly where we are. You can see reporters, cameras getting ready for that, to tell us exactly what's going on. We'll go to Thad Allen when we hear that he's ready to speak.

CNN has led the world's coverage of the gulf oil spill for 43 days now. We'll be your best source for all the latest developments wherever and whenever they happen. Stick with us.

All right. He's a four-term congressman. He may become the first African-American to win the Democratic nomination for Alabama governor. It's one of the key races in three state primaries. We're going to bring you up to speed right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Breaking news.

Let's go right to Admiral Thad Allen of the Coast Guard with a briefing.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

ADMIRAL THAD ALLEN, U.S. COAST GUARD: -- talk about some current work that we're conducting, and I'll be glad to take your questions at that point.

We've made a leadership transition inside the unified area command up in Robert, Louisiana. Rear Admiral Mary Landry has been coordinating the response so far, has been returned to her duties as the 8th District commander here in New Orleans. This coincides with the start of hurricane season and the need for her to be focused on the larger array of threats that are present here at the gulf and the Midwest, which she is responsible for.

I want to thank her personally, as the national incident commander, for the outstanding job she did in leading what has been a pretty remarkable and anomalous and unprecedented response, not only for Coast Guard personnel who are involved but the interagency folks that have been involved, and state and local officials, as well. I know Admiral Papp, who relieved me last week as commandant of the Coast Guard, is (OFF-MIKE) her services there as they look forward to what might be a challenging hurricane season moving forward.

Mary Landry will be replaced by Admiral Jim Watson, who has been working with her for the past few weeks. He has been right behind her, right beside her, helping her and assisting her. And we're going to be in good hands with him as the federal on-scene coordinator moving forward.

The goal is to have me speak to you on a daily basis, depending on where I'm at. Many times that will be down here in the region. In fact, most of the time, it will be here in the region. And if in Washington, obviously we'll make access there for you.

The goal is to create as broad a picture of this response, what's going on, and speak very frankly to the American public, be able to answer your questions in my role as the national incident commander. I will glad to answer any questions about that when we go to the Q&A.

A couple things I'd like to talk about today. The reason we're here in New Orleans and we're actually at the port authority building down on the water front is later on this afternoon we're going to convene a meeting of state and local representatives and federal partners and representatives of academia, and we're going to talk about the proposal submitted by the state of Louisiana to construct barrier islands and berms as a potential protective measure against oil, both to the west of the Mississippi River and to the east up towards the Chandelier Islands, Plaquemines Parish, St. Bernard Parish and so forth.

This was a topic of intense discussion with the president last week in Grand Isle. He directed me to convene a meeting to obtain transparency on information associated with this, to understand the pros and cons. Is this an effective way to respond to the oil spill? What are the issues associated with it? Are there potential environmental impacts? What should we be concerned about? What are the critical elements of the information that we need to move forward?

So that will happen this afternoon. We will have that meeting. And when it's done I will assemble the information that's derived from the meeting, and we'll report that back to the president with my recommendations.

As we speak, we are in the first process of moving to the ability to control the oil leakage. As you know, during this last weekend, we tried the top kill exercise. There were three different top kill attempts made in three consecutive days. Thirty thousand barrels of mud was placed down the well bore. Unsuccessful at overcoming the pressure of the hydro carbons coming up through the well bore.

As a result of that, we've gone to oil containment rather than capping the well. That involves a couple of things this afternoon. One of them is cutting the riser pipe beyond the kink that you all have seen on television and then going with a second cut which is called a diamond wire cut. And we will attempt to get that as close to the top of the lower marine riser package as we can and make that as a fine a cut and, hopefully, get it as perpendicular to the center axis of the pipe as we can.

The reason we want to do that is we have two options. One is called a top cap, which is a much tighter, finer seal with a rubber -- basically, a large rubber gasket that goes over the top that would ensure a minimum amount of oil leaked out. And if we don't get that, then we'll put another device over the wood, potentially cause some oil leakage around the sides. So we want that first option if we can do it.

That will depend on the results and the success of that second cut, the diamond wire cut. As I said, we're in the middle of the first cut right now, what's called the sheer cut, and we'll be reporting from our various locations this afternoon as we move through that process.

So after that the goal will be then to take the oil that's coming off the well bore, take it to the surface and actually produce it. That will be a flare-off of natural gas to go ahead and produce the oil and transfer it to shore by tanker or barge.

As we move to containment, rather than capping the well, it introduced some risk factors that we need to be aware of. Once we cut the marine riser pipe this afternoon, the flow rate technical group that works for me as the national incident commander, headed by Marshall McNutt (ph) of U.S. Geological Survey, estimate we could see during that period before the cap goes on a 20 percent increase in oil flow.

And we have discussed with British Petroleum mitigating measures regarding under sea dispersant use and so forth as we move forward to try and mitigate the impacts. But the fact of the matter is there will be a period of time where there will be hydro carbons coming out, out of the well while we cut the pipe, remove it, and put the cap or the top hat in place.

That brings up a second risk point as we move into hurricane season. We're going to be producing oil out of this well at a low rate, but that's the way we're going to relieve the pressure that's currently there. That means that we're going to have to have a means -- a way to consider heavy weather, hurricane weather, and what to do about that.

There's a couple of options that are under way right now that would include a floating production facility that could easily be separated and moved off station, should we get violent weather during the hurricane season. Those plans are being finalized right now, and over the next -- course of the next couple of days I'll be glad to give you some more information on that.

But our concern right now is that we don't have the oil capped. Therefore, there is a possibility during hurricane season, if we could have to go off station, that would cause more oil to be discharged. And we need to understand what are the conditions, how long can we stay out there, how quickly can we redeploy back, and do we have a way to do things like treat the oil that would be coming out with subsea dispersants? And those plans have been requested, and they're being developed by British Petroleum right now. We'll be working those as we move forward.

Finally, the weather has moved to the south. As I have stated many, many times, this is not a huge, monolithic oil slick. This is a bunch of smaller oil slicks, some very large: 10 or 15 miles in length and a couple of miles in width but scattered over about a 200-mile radius with a very, very large perimeter.

And the reason we have this aggregation of smaller spills is that, as the oils has come to the surface there have been different conditions regarding current, wind, and tide, and it's moved it in different directions. So there's some oil south and west of the Mississippi River, but with the southerly winds coming right now, that's starting to move up towards Mississippi Sound in Alabama.

We've had some report of some contact in Mississippi and some tar balls on Dauphin Island. We've dispatched survey teams to see what the impact is out there, and to the extent that is required, we'll move resources that direction.

So that's an update for today, and I'll be glad to go into any questions you might have for me. Yes, sir.

DAVID MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Admiral, David Mattingly from CNN.

The White House expressed frustration over what they called inaccurate and not transparent information coming from BP. And I'm curious. There was a representative from the Coast Guard and a representative from the MMS standing with them at every single press conference. If they were giving bad information, why didn't someone from the government call them on it on the spot? It makes it look like they didn't know what was going on.

ALLEN: Well, I'm not sure what the specific information you're talking about is. But the one I'm aware of is there may have been some disagreement on the flow rate after the riser pipe is cut, but that's a dead solid estimate by our -- our people on the flow rate technical group.

MATTINGLY: Can you explain why BP isn't here? The president himself said that they had the technology and the expertise to take a lead on capping this well. Why not -- why are there not going to be more joint press conferences with them here?

ALLEN: Well, first of all, there are a couple of things at play. No. 1, our people in Robert, Louisiana, where the press briefings have been going on, have got a lot of work to do tactically. And I think we need to be communicating with the American people through my voice as a national incident commander. And I think that that is the way we ought to be communicating.

That doesn't mean we're not talking with BP, because I have a lot of communication with them. And we need to understand what they're doing to be able to communicate that, as well, for the Coast Guard and the national incident command site.

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: Admiral, Peter King with CBS News Radio.

We have yet to see or hear a real time line for what's happening with the operation that's starting this afternoon. So can you help us out at least with a little bit of a time frame...

ALLEN: Sure.

KING: ... of what to expect in the next day or the next couple of days?

ALLEN: Sure. What's going to happen is, as soon as the sheer cut is made, that will remove the weight of most of the riser pipe that's extended across the ocean floor. They -- the saw is already in position -- they call it diamond wire saw, and to do that very fine horizontal cut.

Once that's done and the pipe is removed, then they will take a look and evaluate how smooth the cut is and go to one of two options. One we would call what they call a top cap or top hat. The top cap involves a much greater integrity of the seal, including a rubber annulus around that, would require -- allow less oil to be released. If they can't do that, then the top hat will be applied.

These two different devices have already been deployed nearby on the sea bed. They're in what they call wet storage. And there will be a period of time where they have to position the vessels and move those into place.

Once those caps are on, whichever one is determined, then they'll get into position to hook that to the Enterprise, the vessel that's on the surface, to set up a riser pipe and start production to the surface.

The time line between when that cut is made and the cap is in place could be anywhere from 24 to 36 hours, and it could be a total of maybe up to 72 hours to get everything in place to start production. As we get further into it and we know where they're at, we'll be refining those numbers for you. I would take that as a range right now.

Yes, ma'am?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) ... TV here in New Orleans.

There's been a lot of discrepancy between how much of Louisiana's coast is affected by the oil spill at this point. I know (OFF-MIKE) much larger than what BP estimated. What do you think of that means for these discussions that you're going to have this afternoon about how much of the barrier islands will be rebuilt, if this plan is adopted?

ALLEN: Well, I think you can talk about how much is oiled right now, but I think you need to look at the extremities of where this oil is impacting. You know, and it's clear over by, you know, Port Fourchon and places to the west, and we know it's clear up behind the Chandelier Islands. That pretty much is the area -- that brackets the area within which the state has submitted a proposal for the barrier islands and the berm. So you can talk about how much oil is ashore, but the extent of the extremities I think pretty much has bracketed the area and has defined the proposal by the state of Louisiana.

QUESTION: Is that going to affect how much BP does (OFF-MIKE), the extent of the direction (ph) that they do?

ALLEN: Well, we've already authorized one of the segments to be conducted as a prototype. The discussions in Grand Isle were what about the remaining segments? Is there a reason to do that? And that's what the discussion will be about today.

QUESTION: What are you hoping to hear?

ALLEN: The truth. To the extent that it can be derived. We're trying -- this is a very, very complicated proposal, something that's really never been contemplated before as far as oil spill response. And there are a lot pros and cons associated with the time it's going to take to build it. Everybody understands, if there's a physical barrier, that's going to have some positive affect on preventing oil from getting into the marsh lands.

This is being done -- proposed to be done in a very environmentally sensitive area. There will be construction going on during the hurricane season, and the construction site might be oiled while that's going on.

Those are the kind of discussions that we're going to have this afternoon. What do we really mean by this? What is the effect we're trying to achieve? And what are the pros and cons associated with it?

Yes, sir?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) ... bishop (ph), very conservative saying there's 3,000 acres of (OFF-MIKE) oil right now, as opposed to 30 acres estimated by BP, and the (OFF-MIKE) of the Coast Guard, as well. Do you have any estimates on that, how much that is, say, barrier island versus wetlands?

ALLEN: We're getting into a conversation of what I would call linear shoreline versus how deep is it. And I think that probably the best thing for us to do and I think the best thing I do for you folks in the next couple of days is to sit down and come up with a common metric. Miles of shoreline doesn't necessarily equate to the impact you're looking at, this goes a half mile into the marsh. And I understand the difference there. And we will reconcile and give you a baseline moving forward.

Yes?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) ... positions and scientists in place to monitor. ALLEN: Right.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) on Grand Isle from yesterday, people are still very fearful of the dispersants, saying kids, grandkids are getting sick. Can you give us an update on what the...

ALLEN: Sure.

QUESTION: ... proposed (OFF-MIKE), the concern is, what's being done? And what do you tell the public?

ALLEN: Well, first of all, I had discussions this week with Deputy Secretary Harris, deputy secretary of labor. He and I agreed that we need to be completely integrated. We have people down there that have been working from Labor and OSHA, taking a look at occupational health and safety issues, as well as Health and Human Services. What I thought we needed to do, because we're kind of creating doctrine as we go because of the enormity of this spill and the anomalous nature of it.

We're in the process of negotiating an MOU with the Department of Labor. That's being worked by our staffs today; probably will be done in the next 24 hours. We'll bring them into the command staff. They're present there already. But there will be a formal way to look at protocols, how to deal with workplace safety violations, how to team together. We need to develop facts and information that have to do with public safety.

When we pulled the fishermen off the water last week because of the nausea and the dizziness and so forth, we actually pulled all those people together. But I thought we need a more formal, more integrated way to form up (ph) those folks that can be applied to best use.

So we have ongoing negotiations. And wherever we get an indication that that's going on, we'll be approaching it as a team.

QUESTION: Do you believe what's being used is (OFF-MIKE)?

ALLEN: Well, there are a couple of issues here. Are you talking about occupational health and safety or are you talking about the impact of the dispersants? Because they're kind of...

QUESTION: The second one (OFF-MIKE).

ALLEN: Well, the issue of the dispersants has been raised. I'm not sure we really understand if there's a connection between the air delivery of dispersants and incidents of folks somehow being impacted by that on land.

To that end, EPA has been doing air sampling all around the coastline. We're doing water sampling. I'm not sure we've got a causal link between any symptoms on land and the aerial dispersants sprayed. But you don't want to rule anything out, and you always want to keep the public confidence moving forward.

So EPA will continue to monitor, and we need to understand exactly what the implications are of the dispersants.

However, the protocols for applying dispersants, certain conditions have to be met, including a certain sea state and wind conditions and so forth. And we'll continue to follow up on that, ma'am.

Yes?

QUESTION: How long a period are we talking about between when the riser (OFF-MIKE) is cut and whatever containment goes on top? Is that several hours, a day?

And then also, the second option, assuming that the cuts in the slip (OFF-MIKE) top hat, is that the top hat that was deployed several weeks ago and is currently sitting on the sea bed?

ALLEN: No, it's not the same one. That's a different containment device. These two devices are much smaller, and they're made to fit right over the top of the marine riser package. One is just capable, but depending on how good the cut is to actually put a rubber seal around it.

I don't want to trivialize this, but it's kind of like the difference between having a garden hose with a rubber gasket on it or not and how well it seals.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

ALLEN: Cap is the one that has the tighter seal. Hat is the one that's not quite sealed as tight. And that will be based on how good the cut is.

Yes, ma'am?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) the tube inserted when the top cap failed? (OFF-MIKE)

ALLEN: It is not in now. In fact, if you think of the riser insertion tube as being turned vertically and being put down to the lower marine package, that is what both these devices are intended to do. But right now, it is not.

There's an issues of what we call simultaneous operations. A lot of ROVs down there, a lot of things being staged. And there's only a certain amount of density of ROVs and activity to operate in that local area there. So it's not in right now.

George?

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) How confident are you that either top cap or the top hat is going to work? Can you explain again what happens if there's a hurricane, assuming this goes on, if there's a hurricane?

ALLEN: Sure.

QUESTION: And then (OFF-MIKE) ALLEN: Yes. I think the first thing to understand is we're not talking about capping the well anymore. We're talking about containing the well. There's a difference between capping the well, absorbing the pressure, and being able to hold that until the relief wells -- the relief well is completed.

We're at now where we're containing the well, which means we're taking the hydrocarbons that are coming up and actually bringing them to the surface and actually producing oil and flaring off natural gas.

Since we're in a containment operation, we don't want to restrict the flow and put pressure down that well bore, because I don't think we know the condition of it, given the results of the top kill data that we got back.

What we want to do is be able to get that oil up and produce it. So if you've got production going on, that necessarily involves a vessel on the surface. That necessarily involves interaction with the weather, and we're going into hurricane season. Therefore, you need to have plans on how you would suspend operations if you had to because of the weather.

But also, once we get this thing stabilized to bring in larger platforms for production that can withstand heavier weather, so we have as good a package out there as we can, knowing that nothing is-- is fail-safe with hurricane coming. There may be a time we have to disconnect and have to accept the fact there will be oil flowing up there until we redeploy back. And again, the ultimate solution to this whole thing will be sometime in August when the relief well is done.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

ALLEN: I think there's a pretty good level of confidence that one of them will go on and we'll be able to contain some oil, probably to a larger extent than we could with the riser insertion tube. But again, we're -- as we said all the way along, we continue to break new ground here. And I think we're going to have to have -- wait and see how it comes out.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) ... call from the phone conference.

ALLEN: OK.

QUESTION: Operator, we're open to calls from the phone line.

QUESTION: Yes, (OFF-MIKE) ... Anthony Field.

QUESTION: Yes. (OFF-MIKE) with (OFF-MIKE).

Admiral, President Obama has said the federal government has insisted that a second relief well be drilled. And I understand that operation has been suspended in order to ready the rig's BOP stack for that possible option of (OFF-MIKE) over the existing BOP. But could have another BOP stack be secured from another rig, especially now that deepwater drilling has been suspended for six months? ALLEN: That's a good question. Let me explain because, in fact, they are back drilling again.

When the second rig was deployed to do the second relief well, there was an opportunity to bring a blowout preventer to be out to the site in case that should be the way we wanted to cap the well. And that was on what they call Deep Driller 2. I actually went out and inspected the blowout preventer myself on the rig.

One of the reasons it takes an oil rig to move one of these things is the marine riser package and the blowout preventer together are about a million pounds, and it takes an actual drilling apparatus to be able to deploy this.

So what they did was they put a second blowout preventer on the DD2 before it left port to be the backup, in case the blowout preventer on top of the current one was the solution.

As they moved into top kill, they stopped drilling on DD2's site and moved the drill rig over with a blowout preventer, ready to put it down if that would have been the solution. We would have been able to control the pressure with the mud and actually put the cement plug in.

That did not happen. They redeployed back. They have continued drilling. The blowout preventer remains on DD2, but they are back drilling the second relief well right now.

Next question?

QUESTION: Your next question comes from Mark (OFF-MIKE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (via telephone): Hello. (OFF-MIKE) from a report that the government is sending over equipment that will be used to help draw the oil and separate it and put it back in the water. I don't know what it means, but (OFF-MIKE) The U.S. Coast Guard has requested the equipment be sent over and ships will be sent over this week.

ALLEN: Yes, we are looking at offers of foreign assistance. We're actually reaching out to foreign governments. Some of the equipment that is most valuable to us right now is skimming equipment. There are different types of skimmers. Some of the inventories are present in other countries. We're actually reaching out to folks like the Netherlands, Canada and Mexico as sources of supply for that. In fact, we also have some aviation assets from Canada that are assisting was as well.

I think with the potential to be in a containment scenario through the end of the drilling of the relief well and into hurricane season, we want to make sure that the type of resources we need on the water to be able to skim, doing situ-burning and so forth, are what we need. And so, we're looking at every source of supply for a skimming type of equipment. And that's the type of equipment that we'll be bringing in.

Next question? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): Your next question comes from (OFF-MIKE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): Good afternoon, I'm (OFF- MIKE) Simmons from "America's North Shore Journal" (ph). I wanted to ask about the live video feed, if I could. It caused quite a stir worldwide. But is it possible almost that we are providing too much and not enough information that (OFF-MIKE) if it is portraying the true picture of what's going on?

ALLEN: Thank you for the question. I think you make a great point. I think we're in a little bit of a horns of a dilemma. Everybody wants as much information about this. They're frustrated. They're angry, they're mad. Everybody shares those symptoms. I think the graphic illustrations of that I think makes it clear to everybody. The problem we're dealing with and creating an urgency to do something about it.

On the other hand, we're looking at two-dimensional video, and sometimes it's very hard to understand what it is you're seeing. We actually put a bunch of folks together to try to develop the flow rate estimates, and we had to go well beyond just the video and do a much larger-scale analysis with other sensing type of equipment to be able to actually get an estimate we thought was more accurate and reliable than we had before.

On the other hand, I think we need to understand that that is just one picture of what's going on down there. This country needs to make sure that while we're frustrated and we're angry, we've got to keep our heads in the game. We've got to keep our shoulder to the wheel, if you will, and the America public has to understand that we've got to bring this through. We've got to contain this well and work through the relief well as we move into August.

QUESTION: Next question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (via telephone): Your next question comes from Jeff (OFF-MIKE).

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) Two things. One, the (OFF-MIKE) quality at least for me has been extraordinarily wretched -- I haven't understood most of it. You mentioned at some point something about reports about oil on the Mississippi and Dauphin Island. I was just wondering if you could go through that again and tell me what -- what's going on with that.

ALLEN: Yes. These are initial reports that I received as I walked in, so I'm always concerned about giving real, initial information and having that be verified when more facts come in. Basically, we understand there is reported oil that's been in contact in the western portion of Mississippi Sound and reports of tar balls on Dauphin Island and some sheening offshore and where you have teams that are going to investigate that right now.

I don't have any more detail or reports coming in. I just started the press conference. QUESTION: You next question comes from (OFF-MIKE).

QUESTION: Hi, Admiral. (OFF-MIKE). First, can you kind of say is there an actual chance of success for the relief well? Is there a percentage attached to that number that it will work or success rate or anything else thus far that seems perhaps wishful thinking?

And the next question is, has the Coast Guard made any effort throughout the course of this spill to contain any kind of direct measurement about a video of the actual direct scientific measurement of the oil output?

ALLEN: Can you repeat the first question again? I'm sorry.

QUESTION: What are the actual percentage chances of the relief well?

ALLEN: Oh, OK. Thanks. I'm not sure I would put a percentage to it, but I will tell you this. Once it was known the relief well was being drilled, we directed it that a second drill well be started as a risk mitigator. You have to understand this current well right now is about 18,000 feet deep, and we're trying to intercept a pipe from a very long distance away. We thought it was prudent to have the backup well dug, and we continue to believe that, and we will continue to drill on the second well until the first one is successful and if we have to use a second one, we will. I'm not sure I want to put a percent an associated with that because we're dealing with some pretty long distances here, and we're not that far into the drilling operation.

Regarding the amount of oil, there was talk early on about whether 1,000 or 5,000 barrels was the right number. Earlier on in the response, we were throwing so much equipment out there because we were believing and came to be the case this is a catastrophic spill that our resources were not constrained by that estimate. We were throwing them out as fast as we could.

However, ultimately for natural resources damage assessment to try and understand the potential impact on the environment and long- term issues associated with this spill, we needed a better model for that. And to that end, Marcia McNutt (ph) stood up flow trajectory technical group under the national incident command, and we revised the estimates significantly higher when we put those out last week.

So, while we have, I would say, better numbers, they're still going to range 12,000 to 19,000 and one was 12,00 to 25,000 barrels a day. I would caution everybody that we're still dealing with information derived remotely 5,000 feet down where there's no human access. And while we've gotten much better on the fidelity of the information, I think we're still work within a range here, and we'll continue to do that.

QUESTION: Operator, would you take one more question?

QUESTION: Your next question comes from Josh Whitworth. QUESTION: Thank you, Admiral. (OFF-MIKE) What specifically will hurricane season mean for your team? (OFF-MIKE) What will that change in what you do?

ALLEN: First of all, there's a standard readiness level that everybody goes to for hurricane season down here. As a former commandant in the Coast Guard, and I'm sure Admiral Path (ph) is getting his folks, they have already stood up at a higher readiness level, and that's the reason Admiral Landrieu is returned to her duties.

At the same time, we are assessing the potential impact regarding the containment process that is going on right now, and if we get production start and are successful with top hat or top cap, how we can stop that production, move the vessels off scene if we have to. But also, as I mentioned earlier, to try and bring vessels that are much more seaworthy in, being able to withstand the higher sea states, so we would only have to do it in the most extreme weather.

Thank you, folks.

QUESTION: That had some engineering problems --

(END OF COVERAGE)

VELSHI: All right. That was admiral Thad Allen, who is now in charge of the mission to try and get that oil out of -- get that oil to stop flowing out of that pipe. What you are looking at is a live picture of a clamp, basically, around the pipe. They're cutting a section of pipe that is bent over. This is the riser pipe. This is the pipe that used to go right to the top. They're cutting that off.

And as he has just told us, and we're just trying to get some more detail on this, he's basically told us there's two units. There are two devices. One -- every day there are new terms about these things. He calls one a top hat and one a top cat. He said they're both devices that will go on top of the riser after they cut it off. The difference is one of them has a rubber seal that will seal better and get more oil out. The other one doesn't. They will both be dependent on their weight. A riser -- there would be a riser, there would be a pipe that goes to the surface that siphons off all the oil.

David Mattingly is in that room. We'll go back to him to find out a little more detail about this. Our coverage of this continues in just a moment. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories we're following here at CNN. It's a lot to do with oil. It's been leaking into the Gulf of Mexico now for 43 days. We're covering every angle of this disaster. BP's latest effort to cap the leak is going on right now.

Meanwhile, President Obama has ordered federal authorities to trip the manpower on parts of the Gulf Coast where the oil has hit shore. I'll go to Chad a little while to find out where those points are.

Let's go overseas for a second. Al Qaeda says its number three man, the commander of its Afghan operations, has died. A web message from the terror group doesn't detail the cause of Mustafa Abu al-Yazid death but says his wife and several of his children were also killed. A U.S. intelligence source says it's believed Yazid was killed in Pakistan's tribal area.

In Washington, a new and disturbing report. The Justice Department's internal watchdog says the agency is not ready to respond to a terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction. The report says the FBI alone is prepared but not the number of -- other law enforcement agencies under the justice umbrella.

And after 40 years of marriage, former Vice President Al Gore and his wife Tipper are separating. They sent an e-mail to friends calling it a mutual decision. No word on the details but the couple says they came to a decision after long and careful consideration.

Again, we are covering the oil disaster in the Gulf from every angle. It's day 43. When we come back, we'll keep looking ahead at what the symptoms are.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK. It's Day 43 of the oil spill. We at CNN are covering this so much that we have to remember that not everybody is taking it in the way we're covering it. So, you know, some of our people are on shores, they're dipping their hands in and seeing oil. And other people are saying it's a few days away. Show me where the oil is.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: The oil this morning, the bulk of the oil that hasn't already made landfall is still off shore but not that far from Dauphin Island, and certainly not that far from western Florida. This is thick oil.

VELSHI: And it's moving in some direction?

MYERS: Still, yes. It floats around depending on the wind direction.

VELSHI: I see, OK.

MYERS: For a while we had a southeast wind, like four days in a row, and that was three weeks ago. And that moved all of the oil even west of the southern mouth of the Mississippi here. That's how the oil got over to Grand Isle.

VELSHI: So, this is oil, this is oil, this is oil, this is oil.

MYERS: Right. And let me -- those are -- they're sheen all around it. Don't get me wrong. The sheen area is as big as states. But this is the oil that really would pollute things, kill things.

And so what we have and what we got from the hurricane center and from NOAA and all that would be where the oil really is. Red things are bad. Green things are sheen. Blue, no oil.

So let me go ahead and U can take this and blow this up to give you a really good idea. We'll go heavy, moderate, light, very light, tar balls, and then no oil so far.

VELSHI: And tar balls are -- we like them because it collects the oil into a little ball that can be collected and thrown away.

MYERS: It's relative.

VELSHI: Better than having --

MYERS: I like a fender bender better than I like totaling my car but it's still a fender bender.

VELSHI: So where we're seeing red is bad, where we're seeing blue is good.

MYERS: No oil No oil. No oil at all.

VELSHI: OK.

MYERS: So here is the Mississippi. It comes down here and it gets to Venice. This is as far down as our crews can drive. There's not a road past that. But this is all delta, still estuaries, still nurseries.

VELSHI: The air boats can go there.

MYERS: Correct. So we have a couple of areas that are in red. And this is bad but it's wildlife rescue.

VELSHI: Estuary means it's saltwater mixing in with the river?

MYERS: Back and forth. Exactly. It's tidal.

VELSHI: But we talked about Port Fourchon. We talk a lot about Grand Isle over here.

MYERS: People live, work, and work here, make money here.

VELSHI: Yes.

MYERS: There's the bad part there. And all along that island is --

VELSHI: If you're walking around here, you've got oil onshore.

MYERS: You saw the CEO of BO was kind of walking like this trying to get around it when he was on Grand Isle.

VELSHI: So there are places where there's definitely oil on shore. There are place where it's headed for shore.

MYERS: No question about it. And it could be headed for shore worse --

VELSHI: Let's hold on to that. We're going to talk about hurricanes in a little while because we want to talk about it. We've been hearing a lot of what happens when hurricanes come and we still got this oil. We'll be back to you in just a minute.

Elon Musk, a name you may or may not know. This guy has had a lot to do with your life. He was one of the co-founders of PayPal; he's one of the co-founders of Tesla; and he has spaceships that are probably going to replace the space shuttles for taking astronauts and stuff into space. I'm talking to him live right after this break as part of My Big "I."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Around this time every day we take a look at the big ideas that have a potential to make a big impact on our lives. Today, we're looking at the real life "Iron Man," Elon Musk, he's a 38-year- old whiz-kid born in South Africa, got his higher education in Canada and the U.S. He's part engineer, part entrepreneur, part philanthropist.

Now I mentioned "Iron Man" because Robert Downey Jr. based the movie version of Tony Stark in "Iron Man" in part on this guy. Now if that's not cool enough, keep listening, I've got more.

Elon Musk is full of big ideas one of which has probably touched you directly. He's a founder of PayPal, the e-commerce site that helps to transfer money electronically. eBay owns PayPal now, he doesn't. Musk co-founded Tesla Motors, too, an electric carmaker working with Toyota to make affordable electric cars.

I'm not finished. He's also the chairman of Solar City, a solar power company, and he runs SpaceX, a private spaceship company working with NASA to do some of the work of the space shuttle program once it's retired later this year.

Elon Musk joins me now via Skype from California. Elon, good to have you on the show. Thanks for being with us.

ELON MUSK, ENTREPRENEUR & INNOVATOR: Thank you for having me.

VELSHI: What's next for you? You're 38 and you have most stuff behind you than most people achieve in their entire lives. What are you working on now?

MUSK: Well, the thing that's most eminent is the launch of our big rocket for SpaceX, it's called the Falcon 9, and it's -- it's really quite a significant rocket. It's got four times the thrust of a 747 jumbo and it's going to do its maiden flight quite soon, maybe as soon as this weekend. And that's the rocket that's going to be taking over for the space shuttle as far as cargo transport to and from the Space Station is concerned, which is, in fact, the main duty of the space shuttle.

The space shuttle, as people are probably aware, is retiring at the end of this year, perhaps early next and at that point we'll take over for them.

VELSHI: And this is a big deal, because what the president wants is NASA to be able to go deeper into space, do other exploration, and we seem to have gotten better of this business of transporting people and cargo so they're looking at privatizing that. You're well equipped to handle that. Are you also going to be able to carry astronauts into space?

MUSK: That's certainly our hope. We've already won the contract to carry cargo and there's more cargo trips than people. So, we've sort of won the majority of the trips.

But right now, the cargo is slated to be transported -- or rather, the astronauts will be transported on the Russian Soyuz at a very high cost per seat. It's about $15 million per seat that the Russians are charging us, so obviously we want an American solution to (INAUDIBLE) transport.

And we actually designed our vehicle from the beginning to meet NASA's human rating requirements so that the transition to human carriage would be very rapid. The only thing we need to add from a development standpoint is the escape system, something the shuttle doesn't have. And once we have that in place, then we can transport astronauts.

There's quite a battle in Congress over this direction.

VELSHI: Yes.

MUSK: With the president being, you know, very much in favor of privatizing astronaut transport. And a number of people in Congress, particularly districts that are affected by this change, are opposed to it.

VELSHI: Well, let's talk about that for a second, Elon. Is this going to result in -- if you privatize this part of space travel, the cargo and maybe the people getting in and out of space, does that mean fewer jobs or more jobs or is it a net -- is it a wash? What does it mean?

MUSK: Well, I actually think it ends up being a lot more jobs because as you reduce the costs and improve the reliability of transport in any arena, you tend to see a huge growth in that sector. That certainly happened with cars and with planes, with boats, before that with steam engines before that.

So, I think it may seem that, you know, it's possible that in the short term there may be slightly fewer jobs, but there's no question in the long term there are far more jobs. And it's also, by privatizing it, it opens up in the possible that anyone in the long term may be able to go to space and you --

VELSHI: All right, stay with us. I want to get a break in here, Elon, and I want to talk to you about how you put your very nimble brain to solving the big problems that we've got to deal with right now. Elon Musk joining me via Skype. We'll be right back with the real life "Iron Man," right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Continuing my conversation with Elon Musk, inventor, entrepreneur extraordinaire, co-founded PayPal, co-founded Tesla, he's the CEO and founder of SpaceX, and is the chairman of the board at Solar City, a solar energy company. Elon joins us from California via Skype. Thirty-eight years old, the character in Robert Downey Jr.'s "Iron Man" in part inspired by him.

Elon, you've dealt a lot with energy. Obviously you're in the solar energy business, the electric car business. I'm going to throw you a bit of a curveball here, because I know this isn't what you came here to talk about, but we're so into this whole oil situation, the whole country sort of now newly aware of the dangers of our own appetite for fossil fuels and oil and the dangers of not being able to clean this up properly.

How do you apply your approach to life and solving problems to a solution like this?

MUSK: Well, for a long time at least the last sort of 20 years, you know, with cars, there were three areas that would most affect the future of humanity, in my opinion, others might come up with a different list. One is the Internet, the other was sustainable energy and the third was space exploration and particularly the expansion of life to multiple planets.

But on that second point, sustainable energy, I think we really see a clear example here with the Gulf oil spill that, you know, the oil is bad in so many ways. Apart from being unsustainable, it also is a huge pollutant of the oceans, of the atmosphere and we need to get off it.

That's really what Tesla's about and it's what Solar City is about. Helping solve that trend -- helping that transition to sustainable energy future.

VELSHI: You know, when I have this conversation on TV, I invariably get e-mails and comments from people that say don't blame us for what BP did, but what lesson should all of us take away from this? And I'm not trying to share blame or spread blame, I'm just trying to say what message can we take? Can we change our consumption habits enough that we don't need to drill in such deep water for oil?

MUSK: There's no question that we'll have to change our consumption habits, you know, at some time this century, because oil is going to become extremely expensive. So it's simply not a sustainable resource and we've tapped really all the easily available oil, now we're going to the oil that's very difficult to obtain. That's part of the reason why you have this -- this well that can't be capped. It's really sort of fairly difficult spot.

So, you know, so people should know that sooner or later we're going to have to bite the bullet and we should ask the question, why do it later rather than sooner.

VELSHI: When we can do it now.

MUSK: Why not do it now? Why wait? You know, why wait until the carbon concentration in the atmosphere is at unprecedented levels, you know? Why wait until we've found (ph) that there are many more spills like the one we see here?

You know, why wait until oil is hundreds of dollars a barrel, that forces us to change, and resulting in huge wealth transfers out of the country? I don't get it.

VELSHI: That's why we brought you on, because at 38 years old, with all these things behind you, you're clearly a guy who doesn't wait. So we're happy to have you inspire this discussion.

Elon Musk, thanks for joining us. A pleasure to have you here on The Big "I.".

MUSK: Thanks for having me.