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Hayward Testifies Before Congressional Oversight Committee

Aired June 17, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ED HENRY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They see this potentially as a turning point. They're all or at least most of the heat has been on President Obama. Now all of a sudden you have a senior Republican on the Hill looking like he's siding with this company that is under so much pressure.

You know, he has been criticized by so many Americans, especially in the gulf, but all around the country, telling as well, I think that another top Republican you saw him from Texas, Michael Burgess started off his questioning of Tony Hayward by immediately saying, I'm not apologizing to you, to Tony Hayward.

These Republicans know as much as the White House does that what Joe Barton said was explosive.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: They're not backing away from the decision to include Eric Holder, the attorney general, in this meeting yesterday even as Eric Holder is ultimately in charge of the criminal investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're not, I mean, you can guarantee they'll be pressing Robert Gibbs about that he's scheduled to have a briefing with the reporters at 2:00 p.m. to really find where the lines are on that.

But Eric Holder had a briefing earlier today and was asked about this charge and he basically said, that the criminal investigation is walled off from the separate issue of compensation. Now we obviously need to press and see exactly how it is walled off and where they see those distinctions.

But they are not backing away at all in saying that Eric Holder is a critical player in all of these negotiations and they're not going to keep him out of it. Very interesting, the White House, of course, wants to jump on what they see as a big miscue by Republican, Joe Barton. Because the heat has been on President Obama if all of a sudden they can shift some of the attention away to the Hill, they obviously see that as a political bonus.

BLITZER: All right, that heat is obviously going to be intense. Let's go to Louisiana right now. CNN's Ed Lavendera has been watching these hearings together with some folks down there and as much as the Washington political intrigue excites a lot of folks inside the beltway, Ed. I suppose where you are people want answers and what they really want is to see this oil simply go away right now. ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, clearly, that's what everyone along the Gulf Coast wants to see this oil spill controlled and cleaned up here in the weeks and months ahead.

But, I must say, Wolf, the expectations for what people are expecting to hear from Tony Hayward are extremely low and I guess based on what we've seen so far this kind of plays into why people kind of feel that way.

We're going to talk to the manager. We're here in Dot's Diner in Louisiana. This is Melissa Swagman. You've been watching a little bit because you've been running around and working. How frustrating is it to hear Tony Hayward say over and over again, I don't recall, I didn't know what was going on. Is that frustrating?

MELISSA SWAGMAN, LOUISIANA RESIDENT: It is frustrating. Whether they were negligent or not, there's a lot of people that are suffering for it, their livelihood. I mean, they just -- they've got to be some kind of accountability and they need to start the process. It's been 60 days and they're really not seeing much help.

LAVANDERA: I imagine that every morning when you come to work this is the talk.

SWAGMAN: Yes. It went from the Super Bowl real quick to the oil spill. It's been like two months now.

LAVANDERA: And how has that changed here in the last few weeks? Anger? Did it start off different way?

SWAGMAN: Anger because it seems like there's not a lot being done about it. I mean it's just, it's a slow process and they're not seeming to get anywhere.

And the coastline, the wildlife, these people depend on to live to survive off the Gulf Coast and they can't pay their bills. They're not, not getting money or reimbursed in any way to continue on. I mean, they're just now recovering from Katrina and now they're hit with this.

LAVANDERA: Do you think we'll hear more from Tony Hayward? Or are you expecting any kind of answers that might kind of help satisfy what you'd like to hear?

SWAGMAN: I think it's just going to be that they're sorry and it was an accident. And whether it was or it wasn't, they need to start some action and do something about it.

LAVANDERA: A lot of frustrations I think with the clean-up process as well now are you sensing that starting to set in among people?

SWAGMAN: Yes, absolutely. Yes.

LAVANDERA: What do they say? SWAGMAN: Because it doesn't seem like there's -- they're doing enough. I guess or being proactive on the situation. It just -- kind of like a waiting game.

LAVANDERA: And I imagine every morning you come here and you see people every day, you're kind of seeing firsthand how directly people are affected and how devastated people are.

SWAGMAN: Yes, absolutely. I mean, these people -- I mean to eat and live and have a roof over their heads and electricity, I mean they -- where are they going to get their money from now? You know, they're not --

LAVANDERA: Thanks so much, Melissa. Wolf, kind of a good sense, we're talking to several people here this morning and kind of what Melissa said, the expectations of what they expected Tony Hayward here to say is actually kind of falling exactly based on what we've seen so far, falling right in line with what they want.

They know it was perhaps an opportunity to win over some hearts here and convince some people that BP was on the right track. But based on what we're hearing so far, that doesn't seem to be getting through -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, Tony Hayward, so far doesn't have a whole lot to say, except expressing regret, apology, contrition. Yesterday, they did commit $20 billion to help in the recovery and another $100 million to help with the unemployed oil workers. So that is clearly something that BP is doing as opposed to saying. Let's go back to Dana Bash. She's up on the Hill -- Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we've got the Ranking Republican, Michael Burgess again with us and I just wanted to ask you. You started out your questioning by distancing yourself from something that your Republican colleagues said, which is, he made an apology to BP. Why was that necessary?

REP. MICHAEL BURGESS, (R-TX) RANKING MEMBER, OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS SUBCOMMITTEE: Well, Mr. Barton made it clear that his apology was on the part of himself, not the party, not the Congress. But I did feel it was important to make certain that everyone knows that not every member of the committee feels that Mr. Hayward was owed an apology.

Mr. Hayward after all was the one who was in charge, the men who were on the well that could have caused that well to stop production before the accident happened. Mr. Hayward was the one who ultimately could have made that call and didn't.

And for that reason, I don't feel he's owed an apology at all. I don't like the appearance of what happened at the White House yesterday, that's a separate issue and I hope our committee will be involved in the oversight of that process as well.

BASH: Some Democrats are already saying that what Mr. Barton did was politically tone deaf to apologize to BP. Do you agree? BURGESS: I can't comment on that.

BASH: One last question. I know you have to go on for a vote. How did you feel about what you got out of Tony Hayward? I sensed a lot of frustration from members of the committee on both sides of the aisle that he wasn't answering the questions.

BURGESS: He's clearly not answering questions and yes, you understand the legal implications for some of the answers that he gives. But at the same time, we're all here trying to get answers.

As he pointed out, there are many other wells that they have going on in the gulf right now. That's one of the things that concerns me, Mr. Hayward, is how can you assure us that those wells aren't the potential danger that the deepwater horizon was?

BASH: Thank you very much. I know you have to go for a vote. Thank you for stopping.

So, Wolf, very interesting subplot here maybe actually it's the big plot that's going on. You just heard, that was the Republican who started out, the top Republican on the committee started out his questioning to distance himself from Joe Barton who, of course, used his time at the beginning to apologize to BP as he called the $20 billion fund, a slush fund.

And said that it really from his perspective, stuff that had happened inside the White House with the attorney general there so very, very interesting dynamic not necessarily expected as to what was and is an investigative hearing into what happened in the days and weeks leading up to the explosion of the deepwater horizon rig.

BLITZER: Tony Hayward, Dana is going to have a little more, less than an hour now to regroup with his advisers and see what strategy, what he's going to be saying when he comes back at the top of the hour. We'll have extensive coverage obviously of that as well. Dana, thanks very much.

We'll take -- we'll continue to watch what's going on here in Washington. But Ali Velshi is standing by on the Gulf Coast right now with CNN "Newsroom." Ali.

ALI VELSHI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that was a bit like some of the food I eat sometimes, a lot of empty calories. There was some expectation that there might be some good discussion there.

As Dana pointed out, while you were covering it, the number of times that Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP said, I cannot recall, I was not there when that decision was made, I cannot give that answer -- I have to say, wolf, we're waiting after the recess for more to happen this afternoon. But one can only hope it gets a little more satisfying than it's been so far.

BLITZER: It's true, Ali -- he's going to have to come up with some answers. It's not enough for him to say, I don't know, I wasn't involved in the meeting. I have no recollection. He's the CEO of this company. He's been involved for years at BP. He's got to have better answers than that.

But the point that Ed Henry made and others have made, he's been lawyered up. They've got a lot of excellent lawyers advising BP right now. There's a criminal investigation under way. Anything he says right now could be used against BP if there are criminal or civil lawsuits that they have to face. So that's one of the issues that they're dealing with.

VELSHI: It's not a PR win for them today. But I have to tell you, Wolf, remember years ago when you and I were both covering the collapse of American companies under suspicion of activities by their CEOs.

And then laws came in, regulation, FD and the Sarbanes- Oxley Bill to say if you're the CEO of a company, it's no longer acceptable on a financial side of things, to say you weren't there or you didn't know. When you sign the financials of that company, you've got to agree that you're the boss.

That doesn't apply to other sorts of decisions in companies and this is exactly why. It's these kinds of things that frustrate people who say, if you're the boss, if you're at the top. Accountability, whether it's the president of the United States or the president of BP, these are very, very big concerns.

And it's a lot of what I've been hearing down here in the gulf, Wolf, from people who are saying, we want to know who's the boss, who's taking charge and why this is going to be different the next time. You don't get that, if you don't get answers.

BLITZER: And it's not just the CEO and the top executives. Members of the board are being held accountable as well when things go wrong as a result of the legislation that became the law of the land as you well know, Ali.

VELSHI: All right, Wolf, hopefully you can get something in the next hour that's more satisfying than the empty calories you're going to be back with when the testimony continues and we'll take it over for a little while.

Here's where we're going with today's show. Nearly two months into the gulf oil disaster, BP's top executive, Wolf and I were just talking about it, Tony Hayward gets grilled on Capitol Hill. Tony Hayward has apologized for the 11 lives lost and the gusher that continues to spew uncertainty for an entire region.

Lawmakers want to know if the company puts profit over safety. Along the gulf, my firsthand look at efforts to keep the oil from reaching shore, I headed out with the coast guard that's why I wasn't with you yesterday to see how they are burning some of the oil off the surface of the Gulf of Mexico.

And as the World Cup captures the world's attention, a soccer ball that's not just for kicking around, it is also designed to provide light for children in nations like South Africa. You'll meet the Harvard grads who've created it right here.

All right, it's day 59. Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP getting hammered in Congress. Let me show a little bit of what was just going on. First of all, by the way, I'm going to tell you, Josh Levs is going to join us in just a moment. We're going to talk about what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico in terms of siphoning.

But Tony Hayward is before Congress right now and he is testifying. He opened with some very short, contrite testimony. He's not come across as a particularly emotional fellow. He started with some short testimony and then the Q&Q started. And that's where it started to get hot.

Now this is just a day after BP committed to $20 billion to put $20 billion into a separately-administered fund, $5 million a year for four years to deal with compensation and claims that arise out of the spill.

Now this morning, when the congressmen started talking, there was a real shocker right out of the gate. Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas referred to the deal that was made yesterday, for the $20 billion, you will remember, a couple of nights ago, President Obama made a speech from the oval office in which he said he is going to ask BP to put aside a fund administered by someone else, for compensation.

So what happened then is the chairman of BP comes into the White House, there's a big meeting and next thing, BP has agreed to the whole deal. Joe Barton called that a shakedown. He said the attorney general was looking into criminal investigation of BP and knowing that was happening for the president to make that demand amounted to a $20 billion shakedown. Listen to what Joe Barton had to say about it?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOE BARTON (R-TX) ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown.

In this case, a $20 billion shakedown. With the attorney general of the United States, who is legitimately conducting a criminal investigation and has every right to do so to protect the interests of the American people, participating in what amounts to a $20 billion slush fund that's unprecedented in our nation's history. It's got no legal standing and which I think sets a terrible precedent for the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: Just for a little context, Joe Barton is from Texas. He's been a friend of the oil industry because he believes it brings a lot of wealth to his district and to the people of Texas, and that in fact is true. Here's the response from Democrat Ed Markey to Joe Barton's comments, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. ED MARKEY, (D-MA) ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: Not only is the compensation fund that was created yesterday at the White House in an agreement reached between BP and President Obama not a slush fund and not a shakedown. Rather, it was the government of the United States working to protect the most vulnerable citizens that we have in our country right now, the residents of the gulf. It is BP's spill, but it is America's ocean and it is American citizens who are being harmed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK, that's not where it ended. Before Tony Hayward, the CEO of BP even started talking, he was heckled. Heckler came up, not entirely uncommon in these sorts of things. Dana Bash was telling us as an unusual amount of security, more so than you would typically see for a CEO at Congress right. But here's a little of what was happening then.

They did -- this is typically what happens. They ask somebody to be removed. They took a little bit of a recess and then the cross- examination begins. As it always is at these House testimonies, the stuff really gets going when the cross-examination starts.

I want to show you, this is an exchange between Bart Stupak, Congressman Bart Stupak and BP's CEO, Tony Hayward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BART STUPAK, (D-MI) ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: You're the CEO of this company. You said you were here to answer the questions of the American people. You were an exploration manager, exploration manager with BP. You were the director of BP's exploration. You were vice president of BP's exploration and production.

You hold a PhD from the University of Edinborough. Based on -- May 12th hearing, the May 25th memo, our June 14th letter to you, based on all of those facts, are you trying to tell me you have not reached a conclusion that BP really cut corners here?

TONY HAYWARD, CEO, BP: I think it's too early to reach conclusions with respect, Mr. Chairman. The investigations are ongoing, they've identified seven key areas and when they're complete --

STUPAK: Every one of those seven key areas, sir, dealt with saving time and saving money and accepting the risk. So if we use your own words, if you're going to hold BP accountable, then we have to manage the risk. Shouldn't leadership at BP be held accountable here?

HAYWARD: There is no doubt that I've focused on safe, reliable operations. We've made major changes in everything we do over the last three years. We changed people --

STUPAK: What changes have you made since April 20th when the BP deepwater horizon exploded? What changes were made then?

HAYWARD: Based on what we know so far, we have made changes with respect to the testing and evaluation of blow-out preventers. We've made changes with respect to insuring that people who are likely to be dealing with well control are up to date and fully validated for well control procedures. And as we learn more about what happened here, we will continue to make changes.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: OK, that's sort of been the tenor of the discussion. We'll continue to follow that. They're on a break right now. I hope they get a little more done, when we come back.

However, there's a lot being done in the Gulf of Mexico right by where I am now. In fact, yesterday I spent this day out there with the coast guard and with the team that are burning the oil off the surface of the Gulf of Mexico. I have seen fires in my life. I have seen oil in my life. I have never seen anything like this. When we come back, I'm going to show you some pictures you are not going to forget.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Frustration by so many people that not enough is being done. The hole hasn't been capped yet. They're just needs to be more done. Well, there is a lot going on right now. Outside of the hole that is leaking all the oil, there is a lot of oil clumped up around the area. You know some of it is washing onshore.

But some of it is sort of within three to 12 miles of the site of the deepwater horizon disaster and that is being pooled and burned. They've determined that that's the most efficient way to get rid of it because if not, it washes up on to shore, kills animals, affects wildlife, affects fishing although a lot of that is already done.

I went out with coast guard, the federal supervisor of this effort. It's a private effort that uses contractors and fishermen who are not working. I spent a fascinating day watching these fires burning off the oil. Let me share it with you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI (voice-over): What we're going to be witnessing is a controlled burn. We know they've been able to burn some of the oil off a little earlier today. We'll evaluate what the situation is when we get there.

DAVID STEVENS, BURN SUPERVISOR: This is actually oil that you're seeing on the surface of the water. Our fishing vessels come along, we collect it. When we get an appropriate amount of oil in the boom we will bring an ignition boat over and we will ignite it.

VELSHI: That's what you want to see. That's --

ANDREW JAEGER, U.S. COAST GUARD: It is, we call those our megaburns or our very successful burns.

VELSHI: If you look up - if you follow this thing up, and you see it up to there, it's like a weather system being created there. And if you see the bottom of the burn, the smoke is white, that's the steam.

JAEGER: That's the steam from the adjacent water, yes.

VELSHI: You'll see as we come up, there are shrimpers on either side of the fire, that's where the boom is connected.

STEVENS: We have them pulling a u-configuration. They gather the oil into the boom and they just keep working real slow.

VELSHI: They corral the oil basically that is then set on fire.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we're averaging two to 5,000 barrels an hour.

VELSHI: So even though this is crude oil, it's been degraded a little bit from its mixture of the water. You can't sort of just throw a match on it and hope it's going to ignite.

So what happens is they put one of these in with it this is two half-gallon jugs of diesel and then at the bottom here, you see a flair. They light the flair, the flair then melts the plastic around the diesel and ignites the diesel. Hopefully the diesel burns hot enough and long enough in the oil that it ignites the oil.

We're in the middle of where the oil is. Just a few miles away. In fact right in the distance, maybe it's 10 miles away you can see the source of the spill where the deepwater horizon went down. And you can see the fish swimming around the water is fairly clean here. This is an area that's that there's been burning going on.

In a good day they can burn 30,000 to 40,000 barrels of oil in these controlled fires. Now the sun is getting ready to set here. Any fire that's already burning can remain burning. They don't set new ones, but they'll be here first thing in the morning as the sun rises to start burning more oil. They said they'll keep on doing it until there's no more oil left to burn.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELSHI: And obviously it's dramatic and it's successful from the perspective that they're trying to burn the oil off. But you look at the fumes and look at the particles and you wonder what kind of damage that's doing to the environment.

The decision has been made and the EPA has someone on site there that it's safer for the environment to burn it and let that dissipate into the environment than to let the oil come on shore continue to kill shrimp and oysters and pelicans and turtles and wildlife.

So it's sad when the better of two situations is still a petty bad situation. But it is quite efficient situation, employing a lot of the people who were otherwise employed on the oil rigs or in the oil industry, as well as those who were employed in fishing and can't be fishing right now.

We'll have more on the oil spill and the testimony that's going on at congress right now. But coming up, Dawn is not just cleaning your dishes, they're also helping get the cute and cuddly animals clean from all the oil that's covering them. We heard this from a veterinarian at sea world the other day. That Dawn soap is the best thing to clean them up. This might be a company that's doing something right for the right reasons. I'll tell you about it when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: The fascinating pictures we got yesterday. I'm Ali Velshi. I'm in New Orleans today. It's where we could get from being out in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, we're taking a look at the people involved in the oil spill, the animals involved, we've had a lot of them on our show just to show you how sensitive it is when these animals get the waterlogged, as dangerous as it is. You might have seen some cute little animals get cleaned.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Ali, it takes three of these to clean one oily pelican. Dawn dishwashing detergent turns out to be the agent of choice for volunteers cleaning birds covered in crude. They're heartbreak being images, according to federal officials, since the spill, more than 600 birds have been rescued, 42 cleaned and released.

Dawn tells us they've sent 7,000 bottles of this detergent to the Gulf at no charge. They'll ship another 5,000 to Louisiana, Alabama and Florida. Why Dawn, Ali? A company spokeswoman wouldn't disclose what ingredients are in the secret sauce, but said it's Dawn, it gets grease out of the way. It cuts grease, but it's gentle. That's been their advertising campaign for years, right?

In a corporate disaster at least one, I guess emerging is as an accidental corporate good citizen, but Dawn representatives say it's not about product placement. There have been no press releases or commercials directly tied to this disaster. Still, ironically, the company began running this commercial before the oil disaster as part of a big environmental role out.

These images mirror what's taking place along the Gulf Coast right now, but in fact, this very ad started airing almost a year ago and was brought back for Earth Day this year just days before the Deepwater Horizon exploded and sank.

It was launched, Ali, to educate people about the effects of oil on an animals, whether from a spill, from runoff or from oil seeping up from the ground. To date, Dawn tells us they've raised $500,000, money they say will that will be used to train people to treat these animals. Ali--

VELSHI: It is so cute to see when these animals are back to health, but it's so sad to see when they're not. All right sorry about that, I didn't have my mic done properly but you can watch Christine and me every single day here on this show or Saturdays at 1:00 P.M. eastern and Sundays at 3:00 P.M. eastern. OK capturing this oil that is leaking out there. BP has a second system up and running, we're going to crunch the numbers we'll tell you what the second system and we'll see if it's making a difference, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: More of the pictures from yesterday, unbelievable images, this is the oil being burned off of the surface of the ocean. 50 miles out into the Gulf of Mexico. That's about you know, just a few miles from the site of the Deepwater Horizon. The oil is still be collected at the site obviously . BP now has a second system in place for containing the spill, the oil that's coming out of the actual well.

It in addition to the system that's there, the top hat, this second system funnels the oil from the blow-out preventer, which is the thing at the bottom, to a second ship. And no one explains these things better than Josh Levs, he's here to tell us how it works and take us through the numbers about how much oil this is going to help actually get out of the mix. Josh--

JOSH LEVS CNN CORRESPONDENT: And Ali, you're seeing with your own eyes, some of the results of what's not getting caught so far as well what these officials are trying to do. This is an image right here that's going to help everyone understand, why we're in a whole day when it comes to, what they've been trying all along.

The effort has been you get the blow-out preventer try and get as much as they can up to the Enterprise drillship. That's what the focus always has been until finally this came along. Got into place the Q4000. And this is what we're looking at now.

How much work now that there is this second ship that's set out there, how much more oil is being contained. Is it a big step forward?

We wanted these numbers, we have new numbers today that are just pop in. So let me bring them to you. This is what we're looking at, how much oil has been contained in order to give you a comparison, what I need to do is look at Monday and then look at yesterday when the new ship was set up.

Because on Tuesday while they were setting it up, there were some problems, there was a halt along the way. All right so on Monday in total they managed to contain 15, 420 barrels. And that was in the one drill ship, the Enterprise. So about 15,000 barrels on Monday.

Skip ahead to Wednesday now where they had both ships going, this is what we got. We got again about 15,000 barrels collected on the one drill ship. And 3, 850 barrels that are flared from the new ship. So put it all together and we have gotten a little bit of a bump. In general they were saying 14,000 to 15,000 barrels collected each day. Now over 18,000 they are saying have been either collected or flared given what the two ships are doing. So basically, we are seeing a little bit of an increase, we are seeing a little bit of good news from the addition of that additional ship there. It means that they are pulling up more oil out of the water. That said, Ali, we keep hearing more and more different estimates of about how much oil is actually leaking into the water.

It's still a fraction, it's still not everything that we need to be getting there.

VELSHI: And I mean there's some estimates over 60,000 barrel as day. It's just tragic. There's so much oil leaking out there. But hopefully as we get you know day after day and week after week more of it can be contained.

But around here, the feeling when you go down into the bayou here, Josh, people say just cap this thing we want this to stop. We don't know what our lives are going to look like in a year, or five years or ten years down the road until it's capped.

And I got to tell you, hardy, hardy folk down here, Josh. I've spent-you know I've been here through a couple of hurricanes, I've spent a lot of time out here they can handle it. They just want to know when it' ends. If you tell them that it's not going to be the same for five years, somehow they'll figure out a way around it. But they don't even know the answer to that right now It's tough.

LEVS: Yes and there's a lot of hope for August when the BP is saying that these relief wells will be down. I'm not going on the record and saying we're definitive they'll be done then. There's been so many estimates that have turned out to be wrong, so many predictions that have been wrong. August right now is the big, big hope for those two relief wells to pull it back.

VELSHI: Yes, I hope it works, Josh thanks very much for clearing this up for us. Josh Levs he's always great at breaking these things down.

All right. The fight rages against the oil disaster here in the Gulf of Mexico. But half a world away, oil spills have been gushing for 50 years. One activist calls it is a dead environment. The country is Nigeria we'll "Globe Trek" around the world after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All through the show we've been bringing you pictures we took yesterday while out on the Gulf of Mexico watching those controlled burns of the oil that has been leaking. Time to go "Globe-Trekking", same story though.

Let's go to Nigeria, not to talk about the World Cup let's stick with oil for a second. Oil spills big ones that have been going on for years. According to a report in "The New York Times", the oil region of the Niger delta has experienced an oil spill the size of the Exxon- Valdez disaster every year for the past 50 years. We'll give you more on that in a second.

Let me tell you about Nigeria first of all. It's Africa's leading oil producer, it produces ten percent, of all the oil imported into the United States, it's Africa's, most populous country More than half the people in Nigeria live in poverty It's got a history of deadly clashes between Muslims and Christians.

Just one example of the ongoing disaster. When it comes to oil, oil rushed from a ruptured pipe belonging to Royal Dutch Shell for two months before it was shut off only a few weeks ago. There are numerous other examples like this.

Oil rigs seem to be everywhere in the delta region. Analysts say these leaks and these ruptures are due to improper maintenance. But a lot of it is sabotage. There's a sort of a civil war situation going on in Nigeria. Many of these oil spills come from rusted by the way or old pipes.

One expert quoted by "The Times" said the pipeline failure in Nigeria is much, much worse than anywhere else in the world. Just like here along the Gulf of Mexico where I am, Nigerians who depend on the land and sea for their livelihoods have seen that devastated.

Areas that once flourished with shrimp and crab well now they are wasteland. One woman tells "The Times", there's Shell oil on my body. Hello, to you, too.

Now we're trekking over to a region, that we've been to before to bring you an update, Israel and it's blockade of Gaza. You'll recall back in May when the Israeli Navy raided a Turkish ship trying to break through the blockade.

This Israeli video shows the raid in progress. Nine people on the ship were killed. These pictures show Palestinians at a distribution center getting basic food and supplies and other necessities, which are allowed into Israel.

That doesn't actually look like that video that's the Israeli video we're looking at. That's the video of the aid going out there. Now today Israel announced that it would ease the blockade by letting more goods into Gaza but leave place-leave in place procedures aimed at keeping weapons from reaching the hands of militant Hamas group, which is now in control of Gaza.

Our own reporting does tell us though. That some of the things that they try and to keep out of Gaza include certain spices, printing paper, things like that it wouldn't be clear to most people how they're used as weapons.

This move comes in response to widespread international pressure on Israel to lift the blockade completely. OK I've been world-I've been "Globe-Trekking" we haven't talked about the World Cup. What's wrong with this picture? All eyes remain on South Africa for the World Cup. Some young women are now trying to harness the power and popularity of soccer to light the way for African children. This is a great "Big I". I'm going to bring it to you right after this.

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VELSHI: OK. Every day we bring you something called the "Big I", hat is ideas that can help us go further, take the world a little further. Take us a new direction, today's ties in with the popularity of the World Cup going on right now in South Africa.

Something you know that I've been very interested in here on this show. Four Harvard students want to use the game's popularity to help the African children. Sounds good. They've developed a ball, not a soccer ball, it's called a Socket.

Which makes a lot of sense because it generates energy when you play with it. And just like a socket, you can plug things into it. Sounds fantastic. Joining me from New York are three of the minds behind the socket. Jessica Matthews, Jessica Lynn and Julia Silverman, there seems to be some condition that everybody's name started with a j.

Thank you for being with us and telling us about this. Julia, you've got the ball, right I think you are Julia are you Julia?

JULIA SILVERMAN, INVENTOR, SOCKET: Yes, I am Julia. This is the socket ball.

VELSHI: Tell me about the socket ball.

SILVERMAN It looks normal, right? This is one of them. This is our Socket II prototype. We're actually working with a team in South Africa to develop it. So it's all local South African materials, you just plug in anything with a DC jack right now and you get some lights.

So let me see if I can get -- there you go. There.

VELSHI: Wow!

(CROSSTALK)

VELSHI: And it's-- how where did the is the energy coming from?

SILVERMAN The energy is coming from a mechanism inside the ball.

JESSICA MATTHEWS, INVENTOR, SOCKET: Basically we use an inductive coil technology. So you have this metal coil and this magnetic slug that goes back and forth, back and forth whenever the ball is moved and it stores up the power and you can use it later.

VELSHI: Jessica, is that - you know what you guys just decide who answers this, because there's no-point in me saying Jessica, Julia, Jessica. Is this the kind of thing is it hardy? Like can kids in Africa use it this as a soccer ball and really play with it and then what, take it home and plug stuff into it? Because it sounds neat.

MATTHEWS: Definitely this ball we've played with it in skirts and dresses, we've headed the ball so you can play with it like it's a normal ball. But it can still withstand the normal developing world environmental issues. So it's waterproof, you know you're not going to get dirt inside the socket. It works really well.

VELSHI: OK How about you on the right who is also Jessica, I believe?

JESSICA LYNN, INVENTOR, SCOKET: Yes, I am.

VELSHI: Tell me about the cost of this thing. How would we distribute it. Is it out there already?

LYNN: Sure. So we launched a pilot study launched a study last summer in South Africa and this summer we're going back to South Africa and running further beta tests.

And so after these trials we hope to have a better idea of the cost structures and also a good idea of the network that we're working with of local soccer teams and local youth groups with which to distribute this ball and to develop a program around it.

VELSHI: All right. Now I guess obviously a ball that does something like generates energy is going to be a little more costly than a typical mass-manufactured soccer ball.

Are you, is there some way that you think you'll be able to offset that cost so that poorer kids can start to use this?

MATTHEWS: Yes. It definitely. I mean actually the materials that we use to make the socket are, aren't actually that expensive. So when everything put together and mass-produced, it ends up being not that much more expensive than a regular high-end soccer ball.

And since we hope to get investors to get the programming together on the ground and get one, buy one situation in the U.S. and in Europe, we hope to be able to get a lot of these balls to the people who can't necessarily afford to buy them at face value.

VELSHI: Now, Julia, if I ever become benevolent ruler of the world, I really only have one platform and that is, electrical sockets are the same and adapter plugs are the same.

Whose adapter plug can go into that thing? Do they all have to have the same cell phone in order to use it? Or can they use different ones?

SILVERMAN: Well right now for the Socket II, we have a DC adapter and that's all we've got for now. But hopefully with further prototyping further iteration, we'll be able to build upon that. And that's kind of the Socket program build and provide power.

VELSHI: I love the idea. What a great idea. Kick the ball around and then use it to charge your stuff. Thank you so much for being with us, Jessica, Jessica and Julia, they are the co-inventors of the socket. Joining us from Harvard. I hope that we get to see that on pitches and fields around the world. Thanks very much for joining us.

MATTHEWS: Thank you so much.

VESLHI: We're not done with the World Cup yet by the way I've always got surprises for this one and they always happen.. It happened again when the host nation

Thank you so much. when the host nation, South Africa battled Uruguay we're going to go live to Johannesburg for an update on the World Cup when I come back

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VELSHI: All right, we've still got World Cup fever I didn't get it out of my system just talking to those three young women from Harvard who invented the soccer ball that charges.

Can you imagine , a soccer game and then charge? If you finish playing and then you find out your charge is all gone. That actually doesn't happen to me because I'm, not all that athletic so I never get off the field and find out my cell phone's out of charge.

So with that let's go to Soccer City in Johannesburg. Soccer City is the stadium that hosted the opening match and will host the final match in Johannesburg. And we have put Isha Sesay there. So that she can scope out the whole place and she can have it ready for me for when I get there for the finals. She's got the latest on the surprise outcome of a game between South Africa and Uruguay. Tell us about it Isha.

ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So that's why I'm here, to do your leg work for you All right, well let me brief you on the outcome between that match . Between South Africa and Uruguay. Let's just say South Africa were thumped by Uruguay.

And you know to put it in some kind of perspective, the entire nation was behind the host nation. They had filled the fan parks to see their side take on Uruguayans. And really they couldn't have been nay more surprised to see that they didn't just lose a game but they lost it by such a margin.

We were in a fan park in Sandton just north of the main city and Ali, they basically just went quiet. Those vuvuzelas that you've been hearing throughout the tournament they were very much on the quieter side after that performance. I've got some headlines that I want to show you from the local papers. . Because I think they kind of sum up the situation. I don't know whether you can see this. The headline, if you bring this up says eish, bafana (ph). Eish roughly translating to kind of shucks or doh! Bafana (ph) losing there. South Africa reeled from a red card in a three nill Uruguayan win. There was a red card in that match a South African keeper sent off .

Let me show you this other headline. Ali Forlorn (ph) and furlorn (ph) look at that picture that South African supporter I think his face says it all . The host nation devastated, really hoping they don't become the first hosts of the World Cup to be knocked out in the first round. Ali--

VELSHI So they can still win one more game and stay. They can win or draw one more game and possibly advance?

SESAY: Eh, you know what Ali, their hopes are hanging by a thread, let's just say it like that, because basically they drew the first match and only got one point. . They lost last night. And they face France in their next match. They were the champions in 1998.

VELSHI: All right fair enough. But as I said the other day, you and I talked about it, the reality is the fact that these games are taking place in a free South Africa, after the history that that country has gone through, I think is a win for that country, regardless.

SESAY: Yes no. Absolutely. I mean, I think even if South Africans face the unfortunate situation of their host nation being knocked out of the World Cup, I think they can still take pride on the fact that they are hosting such a tournament after everything this country has been through.

And you would hope they would still maintain interest in the tournament going ahead. But before, you know, we talk about that, I also want to mention the fact that the USA. is playing Slovenia on Friday Ali.

I don't know how up you are on that match. And the fact that Slovenia basically the third smallest nation in this year's World Cup, making only their second appearance and the USA on paper, you guys are tipped to win Ali.

VELSHI: Yes, well that will be interesting to watch. It's a good World Cup. There's lots of good matches going on. Isha I hope you continue to have a good time. I'm fascinated that those vuvuzelas, those little horns, whistles, blowers, whatever you call them, actually stopped for a few minutes. I wonder what that sounded like. We will talk to you, regularly. Isha Sesay our person on the ground at the Soccer City stadium in Johannesburg.

All right. we're coming up to a new hour. We are continuing to follow this oil -- these developments of the hearings on Capitol Hill by BP CEO Tony Hayward. He's being grilled by a congressional panel, by a congressional committee in Washington. It has not been all that satisfying until now. He opened up with a very contrite statement.

It was very, very small. It was very short. He apologized. He remembered the lives of the 11 men whose lives were lost in the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon. 59 days ago, but under questioning, about details about who knew what when and why decisions were taken, particularly decisions that might have led, or might have contributed to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig that led to this leak, the CEO, Tony Hayward repeatedly said I cannot recall, I was not there when that decision was made.

He has not been entirely forthcoming and that may be the result of the fact that a criminal investigation has been opened into BP, and that is -- and that is influencing his ability or his willingness to answer questions.

As Wolf was saying, he has lawyered up. Wolf Blitzer and members of our political team best political team on television are joining me for this coverage from Washington. Trying to get some sense of where this is going and what can come of it.

Wolf, they took a break for an hour. They should be reconvening shortly. But to a lot of people, there couldn't have been much that was very satisfying in those opening questions by the Congressman of the CEO of BP.

BLIZTER: And what was especially surprising, I have to say Ali is the Congressman Bart Stupak, Henry Waxman. Henry Waxman is the chairman of the full committee. Bart Stupak democrat of Michigan is the chairman of the subcommittee that's actually holding the hearing.

They gave all the questions earlier in the week in a formal detailed letter to BP saying these are the questions basically we're going to ask Tony Hayward.

He came up today, made that statement, apologizing, expressing his deep regret, but then once the specific substantive questions began, he began dodging those questions saying he either wasn't involved as you pointed out in the actual decision making on that specific technical issue, or he just didn't know, or other people knew.

He wasn't really ready to answer these questions. That's why it's been so frustrating to some of these members of the committee, especially the chairman the respective chairman of the full committee and the subcommittee.

Gloria Borger is here , Gloria we've got a live picture. They took a break for about an hour or so that these House members could go vote. Bart Stupak saying in advance to the break no more voting in the course of this afternoon. So they should be able to wrap this up in the next hour or two or three whatever it takes. They'll be a lot of questions but will there be many answers? GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYYST: Well, I don't think so there are. You know I couldn't help it as I was watching Tony Hayward this morning think that we were seeing kind of a novel way of somebody taking the fifth.

A different way of somebody pleading the fifth essentially refusing to answer their questions. Because as you point out Wolf, he is completely lawyered up. He seemed to have little affect.

But there was something also he wouldn't answer. Bart Stupak asked him a very direct question, and the question was, should companies with poor safety records be allowed to operate in the United States.

And he did not answer that question. And, you know, that's a question he should have been able to answer, but obviously because of their poor safety record, he didn't want to answer it.

BLITZER: The answer would be companies with poor safety records dealing with a sensitive, very, very important issue like oil drilling that could affect the--