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Change in BP Oversight; New Threats to Housing Market; Three Killed in Minnesota Tornadoes

Aired June 18, 2010 - 13:00   ET

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

ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: Tony, thank you so much. You have a great afternoon.

I'm Ali Velshi, and I'm with you now from Lafitte, Louisiana, for the next two hours. Here's what I've got on the rundown.

The oil disaster, day 60. The Coast Guard says there's as much as 25,000 barrels of oil being siphoned out of the Gulf every day now. More is still rolling ashore.

In Minnesota, at least three people are dead, dozens hurt, after tornadoes crisscrossed the state. There could be more to come for the Midwest.

And in Denver, Colorado, one man's bright idea using solar powered light bulbs to light up the night around the world.

But first, let me give the latest on what we've got coming in from the Gulf of Mexico. This is breaking news just in. BP's Chairman Carl Heinrich has told Sky News in an interview that BP's CEO Tony Hayward is to hand over the daily operations in the Gulf of Mexico.

He is handing over daily operations in the Gulf of Mexico. We are trying to get more detail into specifically what that means. He also said that BP does not know -- and this is a quote, "does not know the full cost of the spill."

Let's go to Jim Boulden, CNN's Jim Boulden is in London. He has more on this new development from BP -- Jim.

JIM BOULDEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ali. We've just heard on the television here, Svanberg speaking to Sky News, and he did say that after 60 days, the CEO, Tony Hayward will turning over day-to-day operations in the Gulf to Bob Dudley.

Now, Bob Dudley is a very interesting person. He's an American who works for BP, in charge of BP's operations in Russia that were extremely difficult. It's called BP TNK and has now gone on to BP in the U.S. and this will put an American voice and American face on to this crisis.

Also, he's an extremely important person within BP. So you can see what's happening here that they are wanting to just have Bob Dudley take day to day control. Chairman Svanberg also said that he admits that what Tony Hayward said things that, "upset people," and said that Tony Hayward said too many things.

Now, this is not a resignation. He was asked whether he, the chairman of the CEO should be resigning, and he said that's not what we're focused on. He said we're focused on fixing this thing, and he said they still don't know the cost to fix this well. But he also made a point that Tony Hayward wanted to lead this effort. That's why he has been in the Gulf since really this began -- Ali.

VELSHI: And Jim, this is fascinating, because that someone would think that maybe he didn't -- he said too much, or the fact that he appears to -- and I'm talking about Tony Hayward now, the CEO of BP appears to have much to do with the day-to-day operations in the Gulf.

Particularly if you paid attention to yesterday's congressional testimony, where most of the answers coming from Tony Hayward were "I can't recall," "I wasn't there," "I wasn't involved in that decision."

You certainly didn't get the impression that Hayward was an integral part of the Gulf activities. He may well be the CEO of the company, but I know this is playing out differently in Britain. The testimony yesterday, which seemed unsatisfying at best, to Americans, and particularly to those people living in the Gulf of Mexico where I am, but it seemed to play differently in the U.K. where it appeared that he was savaged by U.S. congressmen.

BOULDEN: Yes, one paper called him the most hated man in America, "The Guardian" and "The Financial Times" said that he was mauled in Congress. They're not saying here that they don't understand what's going on in the U.S. or down playing what happened in the Gulf at all.

There are some business leaders here a few weeks ago who said that maybe all the blame shouldn't go on to BP. But I think we go back to where Tony Hayward was. He's the global CEO of a very large company, a huge operation in Russia, the Middle East, and the in U.S.

There were people in the U.S. who were in charge of the U.S. side of it. You and I know this is the old Amoco. BP took over in 1999, where the deep water and ultra deep water expertise came from, and that's where they were getting releases were going through BP U.S.

And that's what they were concentrating on there, was, of course, drilling for oil for the U.S. market. He, based here in London, looking overall at the entire situation. So in that sense, what he was saying is how not he was involved in the hundreds of hundreds of drills being drilled around the world, but trying to be in charge of the operation for the clean-up.

VELSHI: Jim, tell me this. You and I are both -- our pedigree is in business news and we interview CEOs around the world. Is there something we or the world is missing about Tony Hayward who comes across as lackluster and not particularly strong?

He was described yesterday as having a flat affect in the meeting. There is often some secret where they say this CEO is not much of a public presence, but he runs a tight ship or something. Are there features or articles or stories about Tony Hayward that suggest that this guy is the leader that he does not appear to be when he is in Congress or when he is making these public statements, things like where he says "I want my life back?" I mean, he just doesn't seem like the guy who has been on top of the situation.

BOULDEN: If you look back to where BP used to be, you had had lower ground, remember -- a very prominent man here in the U.K. I used to interview him, other people used to interview him and then a scandal happened in his personal life and problems in the U.S. with safety.

So they brought in an engineer, a man who grew through BP, who has this incredible background, PhD. He's -- they decided they've got to go to a guy who understands the oil side of things, and that's where he has been focusing.

And I can tell you, Ali, the entire time he has been the CEO, I have never done an interview with him. He's not the kind of guy you see in person or in public very often. And I can tell you, the vast majority of people here in the U.K. had no idea who he was until about 50 days ago.

VELSHI: Very interesting. A little later in the show, we'll be airing some excerpts from a speech that he made, Tony Hayward made in 2009, describing sort of the mess BP was in when he took it over.

And one of the comments he makes in that speech is that when he took over BP, which as you know started to refer to itself as Beyond Petroleum, he said there were too many people in the company who were trying to save the world and our priority is not saving the world, it's creating value for our shareholders.

And by the way, he may be entirely right at that. But in light of the things that have happened right now, Tony Hayward has not had the grandest 24 hours in his career. I can imagine. Jim, thanks very much for bringing us up to speed. You'll let us know as things develop.

But what we do know now is that BP's chairman said to Sky News in an interview that CEO Tony Hayward is going to be handing over day- to-day operations in the Gulf to BP's Managing Director, Bob Dudley, here in the Gulf.

We'll keep you up to speed with what's going on. I'm going to bring up you up to speed with what's happening in the Gulf of Mexico, a lot more collection of the oil from the well than had happened yesterday.

In seems that they are collecting up to 70 percent now of the oil gushing into the Gulf. But still, lots of it is gushing into the Gulf. It's hurting people where I am in Lafitte, Louisiana. I'm going to tell you how the folks in Lafitte are coping with that when I come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. I'm Ali Velshi on Lafitte, Louisiana. We're traveling with the CNN Express. That's why I'm on right now, which is a mobile studio. It's our big bus, and the reason I'm on it is because we've got a storm cell that's moving through here. Lightning got a little bit heavy. We don't mind the rain. We can take that, it doesn't really bother my hair very much.

But we moved inside the bus for a little until the storm cell passes over us. That's what happens around here. And, in fact, weather is an interesting issue, because it does hamper some of the efforts to try and collect this oil.

Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about Lafitte, which is where I am. We're in the bayou, south of New Orleans in the Mississippi Delta and this is where some of the best shrimping is, in the country.

Now, the problem is, the mix of the oil in the water and the stuff that's put in the chemicals that are put in to dispersants have killed the shrimp off. There isn't work for these shrimpers right now. But they are keeping very busy.

They're helping the coast guard, the federal effort, and the BP effort, to try and collect oil and deal with the oil spill right here. I'm joined now by Lieutenant Commander Michael Heisler. He's with the U.S. Coast Guard. He's with the operations section here in Lafitte. You guys are operating from just across the road here.

MICHAEL HEISLER, COAST GUARD MARINE SAFETY OFFICER: Yes, sir.

VELSHI: Thanks for being with us, Michael. Tell us about what you're doing here and how it involves the locals who are largely fishermen and shrimpers.

HEISLER: Yes. My actual position is liaison officer to the mayor and in that role I make sure the mayor is concerned in Lafitte are answered and we address them. Here in Lafitte, we use the shrimpers, we call them vessels of opportunity, where they're paid by BP to go out there on the water and deploy boom and in a safe way. They have to (INAUDIBLE) training, et cetera.

VELSHI: And earlier today, in fact, just across the road, we saw some training going on. BP has taken some space over there and they were training people.

HEISLER: Yes, sir. It's right down the street. It's a small town, so we coordinate with the locals to use whatever resources we can.

VELSHI: We were here the other night when President Obama was making his speech from the oval office. We sat and watched it with a number of the locals from here. They're hard-working, passionate group of people.

HEISLER: Definitely. I have addressed several of those classes that has training, and the questions they ask indicate to me their passion about what they're doing and they want to help out.

VELSHI: How are they doing in the effort to lay that boom or clean up the oil?

HEISLER: They're great. We have over 100 vessels of opportunity working for us and we have had very few incidents of accidents.

VELSHI: All right -- what's the coast guard's roll down here?

HEISLER: Well, in Lafitte, this is a command post, the main command post is in Houma. So we work for actually Grand Isle down here. That's the way the ICS system works. So we use shrimpers and other boats to find out where the oil is at, and they report back to us through radio and telephone, et cetera, to find out where it is at. Once we know where the oil is at then we send our skimmers on the sea to pick it up.

VELSHI: And the skimmers, are they different boats?

HEISLER: They're different. The shrimpers do not operate -- they're contractors who do that.

VELSHI: Now, the coast guard, we have run into obviously a lot of coast guard people here. Some of them like you are active duty, a lot of reservists down here, as well.

HEISLER: Yes. Down here I think we have just in this command post, 15 active duty people working for us.

VELSHI: All right. Well, good to see you. Thank you for being with us. Thanks for the hard work and we will catch up with you later.

HEISLER: Thank you very much.

VELSHI: All right, Lieutenant Commander Michael Heisler of the U.S. Coast Guard.

All right, well, let's talk about housing for a second. It's been in the news a lot. Christine wants to talk about this. Just when you thought the housing market was coming back. There are now rumbling of a double dip in the housing market. Let me tell you about this. It's important whether you're thinking about buying or thinking about selling, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: I'm Ali Velshi from the CNN Express in Lafitte, Louisiana. We are covering the oil spill. We have some news that we are trying to confirm ourselves, but we have heard an interview on Sky News in Great Britain, given by the chairman of BP, saying that the CEO of BP, Tony Hayward, is handing over the day-to-day responsibilities with respect to the Gulf clean-up, the Gulf response, the ending of this oil spilling into the Gulf of Mexico. Let's go right to Christine Romans. Christine, an interesting development, if it is, in fact, the case. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's interesting for a couple reasons, because look this is a company that has some 80,000 employees, when you think of how big that is, it works in 30 different countries.

Tony Hayward is the global chief executive, the guy who resides in London, and he has people all around the world who are in charge of the different regions. Sounds like what's going to happen here is that after this initial response, this initial disaster response, there will be someone in the U.S. who will be in charge of the relief operations longer-term from here on out.

And that is -- that is sort of the way it works, when you have a big global executive of a company. There are other -- many layers, actually, of executives in a size a company this large that oversee day-to-day operations. A BP spokesman telling our Allen Chernoff that Tony Hayward is still leading the initial response, but someone like Bob Dudley will handle the longer term response.

A little a bit about him, he's on the board of BP who started his own career at Amoco in the U.S. in 1979 and had a lot of experience at working in the oil business in Russia, as well. But you remember that BP and Amoco -- that was an acquisition from 1999, so a lot of the expertise we're seeing in the Gulf area right now and a lot of the expertise on that rig, in particular, is from the Amoco part of the company.

And that's where Bob Dudley comes from so an interesting development. Again, that's from a Sky News interview that the chairman of the company gave. And it's interesting the timing, too, Ali, it's a day after that testimony yesterday, and this has been a very big, busy week for BP politically in this country, meeting with the president, as well. So some kind of a change or a handover of leadership or at least a change in the U.S. part of the operations coming after a very busy week.

VELSHI: All right, Christine, let's change gears for a second and talk about housing. We had some sense that at least the housing part of the economy is starting to stabilize. But there is evidence now that in fact there are possibilities of some bumps in the recovery in housing in this country.

ROMANS: That's right. We had this sort of spring awakening in housing, right? We had a first time home buyer tax credit, we had a lot of things that were making -- it was a thaw, really, in some of the concerns about housing.

But there were some renewed concern that now that home buyer tax credit is out of way again, just how healthy is the housing market with unemployment almost 10 percent, you know, what are going to be the hurdles for the housing market?

You and I have talked many, many times, Ali, about a 4.83 percent, 30-year fixed rate mortgage. That's just an incredibly low mortgage rate. But look at all these reasons why some people are still concerned about the future of housing, unemployment, vacancy rates. So something like 7 million homes vacant in this country right now.

Record foreclosures and the end of the home buyer tax credit. Robert Shiller who is a housing expert and who has pretty accurately predicted what's been going on in the housing market.

He points out, Ali, as you know, that a lot of people are saying that home prices are going to start to stabilize this year, and you'll see 2 percent price increases, home price increases maybe starting next year. But he is actually a little worried about something that is parallel with Japan. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT SHILLER, ECONOMICS PROFESSOR, YALE UNIVERSITY: The Japanese economy in the 1980s had a boom in the stock market and housing market. Amazing booms. Some bubbles, some psychology got going and when that burst, home prices in Japan fell from 1991 until 2006. Every single year they went down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: So he says even if some of his colleagues are predicting that stabilization may be 2 or 3 percent gains in home prices starting sometime maybe next year, he's still a little concerned about some of the bigger -- the bigger fallout from that big housing bubble that popped.

VELSHI: Now, Christine, Robert Shiller is one of -- is really a remarkable author and an economist, an important guy. I wanted to hear more of what he had to say in that interview, where would I go for that?

ROMANS: You would tune into CNN Saturday at 1:00 p.m. Eastern, Sunday at 3:00 to hear you and me talk to Robert Shiller about the future of the housing market, and whether housing, Ali, is heading for a double dip. This is likely your biggest asset, your biggest investment, your biggest debt you will ever take on.

And a lot of people have really been hurt and burned. Some people looking for opportunity. We'll have all of that on that show about housing. It's an incredibly important time in housing right now.

VELSHI: 1:00 p.m. Saturday, 3:00 p.m. Sunday Eastern time so every week you can see Christine and me. Great to see you, Christine, and we'll see you on "YOUR $$$$$."

ROMANS: Bye, Ali. Safe travel.

VELSHI: All right. Minnesota has been hard hit by tornadoes overnight. More could be popping up in the Midwest today. Bonnie Schneider is in the Severe Weather Center to tell us what's going on in Minnesota.

While she is at it, maybe she can tell us why it is I'm inside this box. What's going on with the weather where I am.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: OK, let's go to Severe Weather Center. Bonnie Schneider is standing by and will tell us about storms in the midwest. I should tell you, I'm in Lafitte, Louisiana. I travel around with this CNN Express, which is great, particularly, Bonnie for moments like this, because five minutes before the show started, we were set up outside to do the show.

And then our engineer here has been following the cell that is now on top of us and we saw lightning and lots of thunder and now all sorts of rain, which is why it's convenient to have this bus.

BONNIE SCHNEIDER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: I'm glad you're inside, Ali, because right now there is a dangerous storm overhead in Lafitte. Check out what's happening in the New Orleans area, and you can see we have some powerful thunderstorms and the big danger with these storms is not only the blast of heavy rain that you see sliding through Lafitte.

But what we're seeing right now is dangerous and frequent lightning strikes. I've been watching this area. This line is particularly dangerous for lightning. So if you're in southern Louisiana, it is a good idea to take shelter right now.

Well, on the flip side of severe weather -- there is some lightning right now. I've got to show you what's been happening in Minnesota. Devastating tornadoes, large and violent tornadoes just incredible. Some of these are a half a mile wide, and were on the ground for 20 minutes at a time. Imagine seeing that, headed straight for you.

And that's what happened in a good portion of parts of Minnesota and North Dakota yesterday. You can see some storm chasers that got some very good pictures of what it looked like. This is the -- some of the damage taken to the overnight hours, and just completely demolished because of the intensity of these storms.

Now we're looking at the risk for severe weather in a different place. Currently, I've been tracking some very strong thunderstorms across Iowa. They've rolled through Des Moines into Cedar Rapids, but what we're watching for today is a bigger risk of severe weather, where we could see more tornadoes possibly here in the midwest.

Ali, this does include Milwaukee and Chicago, so we're watching for possibly wind damage and large hail. I will keep you posted if we get any tornado warnings in this area. In the meantime, stay inside until that storm passes.

VELSHI: Bonnie, thanks very much. We'll check in with you later. Bonnie Schneider in our Severe Weather Center.

Coming up next, we're going to return to the oil disaster. Among today's developments, a big shake-up at the top of BP's operations. We'll tell you about that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. Checking in on the latest developments on this, day 60, of the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Admiral Thad Allen, the government's point man, says the government containment efforts have improved on the busted well head.

In fact, yesterday saw the biggest collection so far. Some 6,700 more barrels siphoned off than on Wednesday. Now, the feds expect the total contained number to shoot up to 80,000 barrels a day, starting July.

On the other side of the world, fear triggered by ethnic violence and bloodshed, and a desperate need for food. That's life right now for hundreds of thousands of refugees who fled fighting in Kyrgyzstan. We're "Globe-Trekking", right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Okay. Time now for "Globe Trekking", something we do every day here, taking you around the world to tell you what's going on elsewhere.

First up, Kyrgyzstan. It's a nation that's gripped in fear after days of recent attacks on ethnic Uzbeks. The acting president today is quoted as saying that nearly 2,000 people were killed. A number of--that's about ten times the official count.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of refugees are stranded by fear at the border with Uzbekistan. Our Nic Robertson is there with this report.

NIC ROBERSTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This tiny hole in the razor wire border with Uzbekistan is becoming the new lifeline for the displaced people here inside Kyrgyzstan.

The food's coming across the border over this bridge. And into the van here. But it's only the beginning. The U.N says some 400,000 people were displaced in Kyrgyzstan, some 100,000 fled across the border.

That means 300,000 still here. The problem is, in this particular village, they say they're getting no aid at all from the international community.

The only help they say they're getting is coming across the border from Uzbekistan. And what we're seeing as well is not just food coming across, but people, some of the first people coming back, some of the first 100,000 refugees coming back into Kyrgyzstan.

But they're coming back into a very uncertain future. The people we have been talking to in the village earlier on tell us that life here is tough. They're not getting the help they need.

But their other problem, their other big problem, they say, is once they get here, they have nowhere else to go. It's not safe for them to go back into the towns. It's not safe for them, they say, to go back to their homes.

They still fear the army. So for all the people that are beginning to flood back across, there seems to be no hope, no help for them, at least in the very short term here on the Kyrgyzstan side of the border. Nic Robertson, CNN, on the Krgyz-Uzbec border.

VELSHI: OK, next step on "Globe Trekking" is Myanmar, or Burma, formerly known as Burma. Today is the eve of the 65th birthday of Nobel peace prize winner and key opposition leader, Aung San Suu Kyi She's seen in these pictures meeting with government officials, in May at a Myanmar government guest house.

The United Nations and the British government once again are calling on Myanmar's military leaders to release Suu Kyi from house arrest. She's been in prison or under house arrest for 14 of the past 20 years.

She was first jailed in 1990, that's when her party won in landslide national elections. The government never recognized the results of those elections.

All right. Let me bring you up to speed with some of the top stories that we're following on day 60 of the oil spill, a big day for containment of oil that's escaping from that well in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen says the two-prong system is gaining ground, capturing around 25,000 barrels in a 24-hour period, ending overnight.

Ronnie Lee Gardener became the first person in the U.S. executed by firing squad in 14 years. The Supreme Court and Utah's governor both requested to -- both rejected requests to step in and stop the execution. Gardener was convicted in a 1985 murder case.

And oh-oh for Spaghettio's. Campbell's Soup is recalling three kinds of canned pasta product. They are pulling the ones with meatballs off the shelves. That's about 15 million cans. They say the meatballs might be under-processed. You can see a complete list of the affected cans at CNN.com.

OK. Coming up, today's "Big I". I love this one, a Denver inventor hopes that his idea will bring solar power to people who really need it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: Every day, we bring you something called the "Big I", it's a big idea that hopes to solve some serious problems in the world. This one is a really big problem, a power problem.

One out of every four people on the planet, that's over 1.6 billion people, don't have electricity. They light their lives by directly burning fuels, mostly kerosene, but also diesel, wood, coal, et cetera.

That's not great for pollution, it's not great for efficiency, either. On average, and here's the thing, they spend about 5 percent of their income on these fuel sources.

Overall, burning these types of fuel produces 190 million tons of carbon dioxide every year. That's the equivalent of 30 million cars.

Now, LED technology is seen as a promising alternative but for widespread performance and issues, quality issues, things like circuitry and batteries and charging and ruggedness and durability, there are issues that have to be contended with. Inventor Stephen Katsaros feels that he has addressed these issues and more. He's done it at a favorable price.

He's joining us now with a light bulb that can be powered using solar technology. Good to see you, Stephen thank you for being with us. Is this as simple as it sounds?

STEPHEN KASATAROS, INVENTOR, NOKERE SOLAR LIGHT BULB: Well, it -- the technology is fairly simple. But the business model behind it is quite intricate. We need to roll this out across a large part of the world.

VELSHI: Hold that up and show it to us and tell me how it works.

KASATAROS: Well, this is the basic product. There's four solar panels around the outside. There are five LED lights on the inside. You set it outside during the course of a day. You bring it inside, turn on the switch at the top, and the light bulbs -- the LEDs light up.

There is a battery that's inside that's a nickel metal hydride rechargeable battery that stores the energy until you use it at night.

VELSHI: And what would the idea be, that people can use these and they're relatively inexpensive, or they will be?

Yes. So how people will use this, it's aimed at the 1.6 billion people that actually use kerosene now for lighting their homes. But yet make it so inexpensive

Yes. So how people will use this, it's aimed at the 1.6 billion people that actually use kerosene now for lighting their homes. But yet make it so inexpensive that the 2.8 billion people that live on less than $2 a day can afford it.

T The price right now, our website, which is nokero.com, is $15 for the samples. However, when we're dealing with NGOs and large volume distributors, it's around $6 right now.

VELSHI: And how low can you get it? KASATAROS: We're working on substantial cost decreases with not only this model, but future models. We can bring the price down, long-term.

VELSHI: To how much?

KASATAROS: Maybe in the $4.50 to $5 range, depending on model. But I will note the $6 price is 40 --

VELSHI: Yes.

KASATAROS: Is 40 percent off -- 40 percent less than our nearest competitor.

VELSHI: Right. But the nearest competitor doesn't matter. It's the 1.6 billion people you're talking about. At what point does it become --

KASATAROS : Absolutely --

VELSHI: -- Useful and valuable to them. What's the price that you pay for a light bulb that gives you lighting, the equivalent of what you would have paid for in kerosene or wood or whatever the case is.

Tell me, what number does this become the thing that lights up the developing world?

KASATAROS: Yes, as your lead-in pointed out, 5 percent of the income of some of these families, most of these families, goes towards fuel for lighting. So the break-even is actually about five months. After five months of use with this product, because there's no running cost, then they've broken even and they're actually coming out ahead.

VELSHI: All right. And how long should this bulb last? If you use it every day?

KASATAROS: There is one component that wears out as we're all aware of. There's the battery. The battery is designed to be replaceable. It just simply unscrew the cover and pop out the battery. The product itself should last around five years.

VELSHI: All right. And the battery should last about how long?

KASATAROS: About 300 to 500 charges. It just depends on usage in the field.

VELSHI: And a charge would give you about how much light? Or how long?

KASATAROS: The very conservative number is two hours per one day's charge. However, if you charge it for two days, it would last for four hours. It has the storage capacity. So in other parts of the world, it would be about three hours, four hours.

VELSHI: Okay. So you -- the way to make this worthwhile is, obviously, if it gets adopted to the degree to which you can manufacturer lots of them, and as you said, bring that cost down from the sample price of $15 or whatever, down to $6 or something like that, how do you get to that point?

I guess you started with this when I first introduced you. You said the business model is where it becomes interesting. How do you get there?

KASATAROS: Yes. Well, slight -- just a point to make is that we're currently at $6 for our NGO, and distributor price. I go to China often. I go there every two months. I've been there 20 times. I work directly with the factories, I have business relationships.

We have set up our operating entity out of Hong Kong, because that's where -- that's right in the back door of Hong Kong, where these large markets are. So we have done everything we can to crush the price down to a point that it can be afforded -- that it's affordable to these 1.6 billion people.

KASATAROS: All right. Well, we'll keep an eye on it. We hope that works. It will be great to have people able to get light in their houses without having to burn something in order to do it. Good work there, Stephen. Thank you very much for joining us.

KASATAROS: Thank you. It's a real honor. Appreciate it.

VELSHI: Pleasure. All right.

Okay. Couple days ago, I went out with the Coast guard. I think I -- I told you about this when I did the show yesterday. I went out with the coast guard to see the controlled burning of the oil slicks on the Gulf of Mexico. Those are the pictures we took while we were out there. I'll explain how this is being done and how they are containing fires that are being set to burn the oil off.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VELSHI: All right. I'm in Lafitte, Louisiana. A couple days ago, I was out right in the Gulf of Mexico, right around the area where the Deepwater Horizon went down, where the oil is spilling into the Gulf of Mexico.

And I was watching the efforts to burn the oil that has pooled in certain areas. In fact, it doesn't just naturally pool, some of it is pooled, but it actually gets -- they take two shrimp boats, and they attach a lot of boom to it.

And then they sort of corral the oil and then they set it on fire. Take a listen to some of the -some of what I saw when I was out there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: That's it you're seeing the beginning of another one of these in-situ or controlled burns of oil on the surface. There he is he is putting it in the igniter, he has left it in there. How long is that going to take?

ANDREW JAEGER, U.S. COAST GUARD: It takes a couple minutes for the flare to melt the plastic of the you know jug containing the gelled diesel. And then the diesel will spread out. You'll begin to see some small amounts of black smoke as the diesel burns.

And then usually after three to five minutes of sustained diesel burning, the crude oil will catch fire, you'll begin to hear a sizzling sound you'll see the diameters change rapidly.

Usually doubling every minute or so. And then we consider what we have a successful ignition and we begin our evaluation of oil consumption.

VELSHI: So at this point, the flare is melting the plastic of the two half gallons of diesel. And then now it looks like the diesel is burning.

JAEGER: That may just be the plastic or the foam. When the diesel burns, you'll see it begin to spread out a little bit more.

VELSHI: And that forms a patty or a pool, as you described it.

JAEGER: Yes. Now the diesel is beginning to spread. You can see that -- more spread.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELSHI: All right. So you can see in the pictures there, the oil is being surrounded by boom. This is fire-resistant boom. They try and use it as much as possible. It's key to this whole success, because they've got to be able to corral this oil.

It has to be -- the boom has to be big enough and fire resistant enough to corral it so that it can be -- it can be ignited and it can burn. I want to bring in a guest of mine, Jeff Cantrell he's the, vice president of a company called Elastec there in Illinois. They're actually a supplier of the boom but Jeff's joining us from-by Skype.

He's one of those guys that's actually been out there like I was the other day, watching this process. Jeff, one might argue that this oil burning process in a series of mishaps about this oil spill and things that aren't working, this has been the one thing that's actually been working quite efficiently.

JEFF CANTRELL, VP, ELASTEC: Yes, it has. It's making a very big difference, I feel like, that we've - I've got notification today that we've burned over 160,000 barrels of oil so far, since we have been burning. So as time goes on, we get a little better at the process. And it becomes a little more routine.

So we're up in the 30,000 barrels a day that we're eliminating. So it's a very efficient process. VELSHI: Now tell me about the process. Where did we learn to do this? This has not been used other than during the Exxon-Valdez it's not been used in American waters but this is used elsewhere in the world?

CANTRELL: This process has only been used one time at the Exxon- Valdez. There was one burn conducted at the Exxon Valdez and that's all. All the other burns that have been done at sea are for testing purposes.

So this is actually the first time that this process has been utilized in anger. So although it seems new, we've been doing testing and developing this product for about 25 years.

So it's not new to us. We have burned a lot of oil and made a lot of test burns and feel like that we had the process down pat as possible. But, of course, we learn something every day when we're out there doing it for real.

VELSHI: And I was going to say this is-- this, in anger, this is live testing, this is the ability to say, if this ever happens again, all of you involved in this, all of the various companies-the company named O'brien that's sort of the main contractor to BP out there burning the oil, you're all learning things.

What are the biggest takeaways after 60 days of doing this? What are we smarter at than we were two months ago?

CANTRELL: I'd say the intensity of the fires. We planned on fires lasting approximately an hour. And that's kind of the way we started.

The burns would last 20 minutes to an hour at the most. Now we're up to 12-hour-long burns.

So these burns are way bigger than we all imagined, and there's much more oil there than what we predicted that we would ever get into. So to me, that was the biggest --

VELSHI: And the success of a longer burn has got to do with the fact that there's enough oil there and that these booms that you supply are able to be used the right way so they can corral the oil into a tighter space that can burn better.

CANTRELL: That's correct. You know the oil seems to change from day to day. And this within this last week, the oil is in such fashion that it's in long streamers. So we can get on one of those long streaks and continue to move forward and continue to feed the fire. So that's how we're able to sustain that long of a burn.

VELSHI: Jeff, I want to ask you one question. I was out there, you see -- I've just never seen fires like this in my life. They're bigger, they're taller. They burn hot. How do you deal with that smoke?

Your guys are around that smoke all the time, the workers. I know there are EPA people on site and say the workers appear to be safe from inhaling toxic fumes. Hard to imagine with all that smoke out there.

CANTRELL: Well, when I was out there, one of the hygienist -- the industrial hygienists shadowed me all day long.

He had me hooked up with all types of monitoring equipment and it was a little bit difficult to work with all that stuff on me. But at the end of the day, there was no indication that there was any problem. And, of course, I was out repairing boom. I was lighting fires. I was tending to the fires.

I was right out in among the fires. So to me, I was probably the closest proximity to anyone there. So to me, if I was not getting any damage or any problem with what I was breathing, I don't think anybody else would either.

VELSHI: Jeff, thanks very much for joining us, Jeff Cantrell is Vice President of Elastec. The company involved in fighting those fires in the Gulf of Mexico. Creating those fires in the Gulf of Mexico, burning that oil using the booms that they supply. Thanks very much for being with us, Jeff.

All right. World Cup time. World Cup fever is still with us. If you are a watcher, boy what a day today was. So close. That sums it up for the U.S. team in its match against Slovenia today we're going live to Pedro Pinto in Johannesburg. For a look at a controversial call, that may have cost the Americans the game. That's coming up next.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

VELSHI: A huge comeback today for the U.S. team in its match with Slovenia in the World Cup in Johannesburg . But a controversial call may have cost the Americans the game. Joining us from Johannesburg is Pedro with some kind of breakdown about what happened. Hey Pedro.

PEDRO PINTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Ali. Good to talk to you. It was an intense game at Ellis Park here in Johannesburg between Slovenia and the United States. And let's face it the Americans would want to forget about that 1st half display.

They were surprised early on, the Slovenians scored a couple of goals. And I'm telling you I wouldn't have liked to be in that locker room at halftime when Bob Bradley was talking to the players.

Because they came out in the second half with a completely different attitude. They had fire in their eyes and they got a goal right back from Landon Donovan. Then it was the coaches' son Michael Bradley, who scored the equalizing goal with about eight minutes left.

And you thought, can they get another one? Well hey did. The ball was in the back of the net Maurice Edu, did strike it past the Slovenian goalkeeper but like you said, there was a controversial call the referee, disallowed the goal for an alleged push, or an alleged pull inside the area on an American player pulling or pushing a Slovenian player. And he called back the goal and the states have to be happy with a draw. I'll tell you what before the game they would have liked the win. But considering they were two goals down. They'll take the point. Because it means that if they beat Algeria in the last game by two goals, they should still go through to the knockout round Ali.

VELSHI: All right so they're still in contention. It's turned out to be an interesting World Cup in that way. There have been some games that have been sort of -- a lot of experts say some of these games you don't think are going to be contentious or have an interesting outcome end up doing that.

So far, the World Cup, if you've been somebody who's interested in it, has delivered in keeping your attention.

PINTO: Well, the first day, the story was all about the vuvuzelas, which I'm sure you've heard which are the horns here in South Africa. And it was also about the lack of goals. In the first five six days.

We've had an explosion of goals. Goals galore here over the last couple of days, and it happened in the United States game as well. Four goals scored, and I think everyone should now should start getting happy about the quality of soccer that we're seeing out here.

A lot of upsets as well. We have Spain losing to Switzerland, then we have France losing to Mexico, Germany lost today to Serbia. And if the United States would have lost, it would have been another upset to add to that list. Fortunately for team USA you know we had a chance to talk exclusively with Michael Bradley and Clint Dempsey before this game against Slovenia. And Clint told me, if we don't make it out of this group, it'll be a failure.