DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum Worst environmental disaster in decades?

So....is that a Yes or a No?

Simple question...one word answer.

Yes or no.

Yes or No

No other words...no links...no graemlins

Yes or No

BP's Rig Missed 16 Inspections Before Explosion

(June 12) -- The BP rig that sparked America's biggest oil spill in history missed 16 required inspections in the years leading up to the deadly April explosion that killed 11 workers and sent crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico.

That's according to newly released government inspection reports that show the Deepwater Horizon rig was only surveyed six times in 2008, even though the government requires drilling rigs to be inspected every month. In total, it missed 16 checks since January 2005.

It's unclear whether the lapse is the fault of federal authorities or BP itself. An Interior Department official told CBS News that a rig sometimes misses inspection if it's being dragged from one location to another, or if there are delays because of the weather.

The inspections that did occur found no problems on the rig, and the most recent safety violation was recorded as far back as 2007. One report dated three weeks before the April blast, excerpted by the Los Angeles Times, noted that the blowout preventer was functioning properly, without any mention of problems with surges of natural gas flowing up the drill column – the glitch that experts believe led to the disastrous April 20th explosion.

"It appears that the Deepwater Horizon experienced dangerous gas 'kicks' before the April 20 disaster," David Pettit, a senior attorney and drilling expert for the Natural Resources Defense Council, told the LA Times. "It is hard to understand why MMS did not learn about this potentially deadly problem" before the explosion.

MMS refers to the federal Minerals Management Service, which is tasked with inspecting offshore oil rigs. The head of the agency, Elizabeth Birnbaum, resigned last month over the oil spill.

President Barack Obama acknowledged on Friday that the government could have done more to regulate oil companies like BP, but said it's also a tough political issue on Capitol Hill.

"I think it's fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said, 'We need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill,' there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said, 'This is classic, big-government over-regulation and wasteful spending,'" Obama said in an interview with Politico.

Obama is planning to visit the Gulf for a fourth time this coming week. Today he plans to speak by telephone with British Prime Minister David Cameron, to discuss the environmental catastrophe that continues to unfold along America's coastline. There's growing animosity among Gulf coast residents for BP, a British company that's the world's third-largest oil firm and a pillar of the British economy.

In recent weeks, Obama has said he would fire BP's CEO if the decision were up to him, and also criticized the company for spending money on public relations, rather than devoting all its profits to the oil cleanup.

One thing BP has done is promise to donate some of its proceeds to help restore and protect wildlife along the Gulf Coast. The company announced earlier this week that it would donate its share of profits from any oil it siphons off the blown-out well and introduces back into the oil supply.

According to that method, the very oil that's been spewing out into the Gulf could soon end up at local gas stations, with profits funding the environmental cleanup. BP hasn't released details on how the plan would work or how much money it would generate.

Experts estimate that between 40 and 109 million gallons of oil have spewed into the Gulf since April 20th. Some four million gallons have been siphoned off the ruptured well using tubes and caps, and another 18 million gallons have been skimmed off the water's surface, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen told The Associated Press on Friday.


web page
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

All in the name of "deregulation"...too much Government oversight...many said...

Our government, both sides, need to get their thumbs out of their butts and STOP THE LEAK! Play the "my dad can whip your dad" type games later!

LA should do whatever they need to do and tell the President, Congress, The House, Lefties, Righties, environmentalists and all the world for that matter to go sit on a carrot stick!

So...is it yes or no?

Just clicking Florida

Monday, June 07, 2010
OIL KILL
The Gulf of Mexico Killing Fields BP Doesn’t Want You Thinking About
Commentary by Dr. Joe MacInnis
Sea Shepherd Board of Advisors

May 25, 2010


Since April 20 more than seven million barrels of oil have spewed out of a runaway well on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. Most of the focus has been on containing the enormous slick on the surface. BP waited for weeks before releasing the first images of oil gushing out of the wellhead suggesting the company is trying to downplay the destruction of life in the fifteen hundred meters above the seafloor.

IMAGINE A SUBMERGED PLUME OF OIL four times as high as the Empire State Building. It begins at the seafloor, thundering out of a shattered twenty-inch pipe with so much force that the sediments seem to sway.

Less dense than seawater, the oil billows upward, black and buoyant. At this depth, fifteen hundred meters below the surface, there is no light so the oil is unseen—a murderous black presence within an everlasting darkness. As it rises, it swells into thunderheads, roiling clouds, and ragged columns. Smaller plumes break away from the main plume and drift sideways in the currents. Some of these shaggy, stunted plumes remain suspended and never reach the surface.

After rising more than a thousand meters, the widening plume slithers into the lower layers of the sunlit zone. Slow moving currents shear it into shattered smoke and upward streaming strands. For many kilometers in every direction, seawater is shot through with black threads, small droplets, and greasy vapors. When the oil reaches the surface, there are places where the smell of swamp rot and sulfur can make men sick.

In the pilothouses of the drill rigs and support ships floating over the plume, the mantra is control: control of the blowout preventer, control of the top hat, control of the relief wells, control of the submersible robots with their five-function arms, control of the oil streaming up from the seabed. The asymmetrical slicks and sheens running out to the horizon confirm how out of control things really are.


The men on the vessels are deckhands, drillers, engineers, technical experts, and oil response crews from coastal towns like Morgan City, Grand Isle, and Venice. They’ve been working around the clock ever since the high-pressure pocket of natural gas blew past the blowout preventer, roared up the riser, enveloped the drill rig, and burst into fiery orange flames that wouldn’t quit until the rig disappeared beneath the surface. The city-block-size structure with its enormous steel tower that sent drill pipe seven miles down into the earth’s crust now lies silently on the seafloor at a strange angle.

The deep waters beneath the drill rigs and support ships are a place of death and mystery. They hold the eleven men burned beyond recognition when the rig blew up. They hold the soot-black remains of a billion-dollar drilling platform. They hide the hideous maw of a runaway oil well. For sharks, whales, and thousands of other species they’re a place of incalculable carnage.

The seafloor in this corner of the Gulf of Mexico has names like Sounder Canyon, Dauphin Dome, the West Florida Slope, and the Mississippi- Alabama Shelf. It is a wild run of sediment-covered plains, erratic hills, steep ravines, and abrupt valleys. For more than a month, the ever-enlarging oil plume has been drifting across this unseen realm enveloping the larvae and newborn of snapper, dolphin, lobster, billfish, and bluefin tuna. The prodigy of death and mutilations in young and mature animals includes eye wounds, mouth wounds, gill wounds, stomach wounds, gelatinous tissue wounds, and oxygen-deprived metabolisms.

The cell-swarm of killing continues right up to the surface where phytoplankton—the lungs of the planet—are savaged by the violence of the oil and the chemicals used to disperse it. Trillions upon trillions upon trillions of dead diatoms and dinoflagellates rain down through the filthy procession of upward moving oil. In deep water they merge with uncounted corpses of copepods and in deeper water still, the lifeless remnants of big fish, small fish, turtles and invertebrates. The deluge of mega-death continues until the remains come to rest on the gaunt floor of the Gulf.

This is the undersea story of the Deep Water Horizon oil kill—the story BP doesn’t want you thinking about.



JOE MACINNIS is a physician who spent the early years of his career providing medical support for commercial divers working on oil platforms and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico. He’s dived to 4,000 meters in research subs in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and is currently writing a book about leadership in life-threatening environments. For more go to drjoemacinnis.com

Geez,,, It's not getting even a little better is it.....

No it isn't any better. But the news folks here are getting tired of it, so the stories are more about vacationers scared to go in the water than about the spill or the affects on the environment. Just as BP would like I'm sure.

The bass player at my church is a charter fishing organizer. Every one of his clients with scheduled trips has been canceled, as of 2 weeks ago. He gets paid per client that books, so he is not making a dime until this thing is handled, which most likely is not for a long time.

Quote:

---

All in the name of "deregulation"...too much Government oversight...many said...

---

Your article doesn't mention a single thing about this spill being the result of any deregulation. It says that the rig missed some inspections, could be the fault of BP, could be the fault of the government agency.. what it does not say is that the missed inspections had anything to do with deregulation....

Quote:

---

President Barack Obama acknowledged on Friday that the government could have done more to regulate oil companies like BP,

---

The government could always do more.. after every plane crash, natural disaster, terrorist attack, whatever.. the government could have always done more if it had been omnipotent... so it will, in typical government fashion, use this as an opportunity to expand its own powers and reach....

Quote:

---

"I think it's fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said, 'We need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill,' there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said, 'This is classic, big-government over-regulation and wasteful spending,'" Obama said in an interview with Politico.

---

So is he saying he didn't take this issue to the hill because he was scared? ... this is the worst example of left wing pandering I've seen in a long time.. what he is basically saying is that he didn't think there was a problem, but even if he had seen it, the big bad republicans would not have let him fix it... Not only is this guy an idiot, he is a wuss too... He is rapidly earning the name O-blame-o..... in his mind and in the minds of his faithful legion, the guy is yet to do anything wrong... ever....

jc

Obama is addressing the nation tonight. How many times is he going to blame someone else for this?

Obama himself has stated that he has been in charge since the beginning - after the spill was discovered.

The apologists crack me up

Nobody has EVER blamed Obama for the fact that the oil spill occurred...

But the governments response to it has been as weak and inept as BPs....

Quote:

---

Obama is addressing the nation tonight. How many times is he going to blame someone else for this?

---

He may be doing some of that....But I bet that this is more of a platform to push his green energy agenda.

Calm down Daman...

I clearly said "- after the spill"

I never said he caused the spill...his leadership since the spill in getting it resolved has been pitiful.

I don't hate anyone.

Download your President Barrack Obama speech bingo cards here...

web page

glad I sold mine long ago.

Quote:

---

It's unclear whether the lapse is the fault of federal authorities or BP itself. An Interior Department official told CBS News that a rig sometimes misses inspection if it's being dragged from one location to another, or if there are delays because of the weather.

The inspections that did occur found no problems on the rig, and the most recent safety violation was recorded as far back as 2007. One report dated three weeks before the April blast, excerpted by the Los Angeles Times, noted that the blowout preventer was functioning properly, without any mention of problems with surges of natural gas flowing up the drill column – the glitch that experts believe led to the disastrous April 20th explosion.

---

You know .... if a federal authority has a responsibility to check these rigs ...... and they cannot say why 1 has missed 16 inspections ... there's a problem on the government side of things.

Despite that ..... this particular rig was inspected about 3 weeks before the explosion, and was found to be in proper and completely acceptable working order. Why aren't we investigating the person(s) responsible for that inspection to find out how they missed something that was so bad that it caused an explosion just 3 weeks later???

The head of MMS .... who was appointed last year ..... stepped down. She was an Obama appointment .... as much as some want to somehow try to make this a "Bush issue".

She reported to the Secretary of the Interior.

What did he say about her resignation?

http://www.denverpost.com/business/ci_15174158?source=pkg

Salazar called Birnbaum a strong and effective leader who had helped take important steps to fix the agency she headed.

"She is a good public servant. She resigned today on her own terms and on her own volition," he said.



Really????? Are you freakin' kidding me? If this is effective leadership, what the hell is ineffective?

Don't have a link yet - but apparently the estimate for oil leaking per day has just been raised to 35,000-60,000 barrels per day

This is in regards to BP's initial estimate of 10,000-100,000 barrels per day, of which most news media were quoting only the low end.

This also means that the top hat, or whatever we're calling it, is only capturing like 25% of the oil currently leaking, at best.

EDIT: Link http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/15/oil.spill.disaster/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1

FACT CHECK: Obama left blanks in oil spill speech
Buzz up!132 votes Send
Email IM .Share
Facebook Twitter Delicious Digg Fark Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Bookmarks .Print .. AP – President Barack Obama is photographed after delivering a televised address from the Oval Office of the …
. Play Video Barack Obama Video:Obama's Oil Plan: Coastal Critics Sound Off ABC News .
Play Video Barack Obama Video:Obama Offers No Quick Fix To Oil Spill CBS 2 New York .
Related Quotes Symbol Price Change
BP 31.40 0.00
XOM 62.51 0.00
^GSPC 1,115.23 0.00
By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer Calvin Woodward, Associated Press Writer – 2 hrs 51 mins ago
WASHINGTON – In assuring Americans that BP won't control the compensation fund for Gulf oil spill recovery, President Barack Obama failed to mention that the government won't control it, either.

That means it's anyone's guess whether the government can, in fact, make BP pay all costs related to the spill.

Obama aimed high in his prime-time Oval Office address Tuesday night — perhaps higher than the facts support and history teaches — as he vowed to restore livelihoods and nature from the still-unfolding calamity in the Gulf of Mexico.

A look at some of his statements and how they compare with those facts:

OBAMA: "We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused and we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy. ... Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party."

THE FACTS: An independent arbiter is no more bound to the government's wishes than an oil company's. In that sense, there is no certainty BP will be forced to make the Gulf economy whole again or that taxpayers are off the hook for the myriad costs associated with the spill or cleanup. The government can certainly press for that, using legislative and legal tools. But there are no guarantees and the past is not reassuring.

It took 20 years to sort through liability after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and in the end, punitive damages were slashed by the courts to about $500 million from $2.5 billion. Many people who had lost their livelihoods in the spill died without ever seeing a check.

___

OBAMA: "In the coming days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well."

THE FACTS: BP and the administration contend that if all goes as planned, they should be able to contain nearly 90 percent of the worst-case oil flow. But that's a big "if." So far, little has gone as planned in the various remedies attempted to shut off or contain the flow. Possibly as much as 60,000 barrels a day is escaping. BP would need to nearly triple its recovery rate to reach the target.

___

OBAMA: Temporary measures will capture leaking oil "until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely."

THE FACTS: That's the hope, but experts say the relief well runs the same risks that caused the original well to blow out. It potentially could create a worse spill if engineers were to accidentally damage the existing well or tear a hole in the undersea oil reservoir.

___

OBAMA: "From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our nation's history."

THE FACTS: Early on, the government established a command center and put Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen in charge of coordinating the overall spill response. But officials also repeatedly have emphasized that BP was "responsible" and they have relied heavily on BP in making decisions from hiring cleanup workers to what oil dispersing chemicals to use. Local officials in the Gulf region have complained that often they don't know who's in charge — the government or BP.

___

OBAMA: "We have approved the construction of new barrier islands in Louisiana to try and stop the oil before it reaches the shore."

THE FACTS: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and local officials pleaded for weeks with the Army Corps of Engineers and the spill response command for permission to build about 40 miles of sand berms along the barrier islands.

State officials applied for an emergency permit to build the berms May 11, but as days went by Jindal became increasingly angry at federal inaction. The White House finally agreed to a portion of the berm plan on June 2. BP then agreed to pay for the project.

The corps was worried that in some cases such a move would alter tides and drive oil into new areas and produce more harm than good.

___

OBAMA: "Already, I have issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. I know this creates difficulty for the people who work on these rigs, but for the sake of their safety and for the sake of the entire region, we need to know the facts before we allow deepwater drilling to continue."

THE FACTS: Obama issued a six-month moratorium on new permits for deepwater drilling but production continues from existing deepwater wells.

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, H. Josef Hebert and Jim Drinkard in Washington, Brian Schwaner in New Orleans and Carol Druga in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Quote:

---

I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party."

---

Not exactly sure how he can legally do that. The President is going to require BP to dump potentially billions of dollars into a fund and then give control of that fund to a third party.. and if its gone and it turns out people are not "made whole" then will Obama just go back to BP for more? This sounds like a system which sets up perfectly for abuse..

j/c..

Those hard working Americans along the Gulf of Mexico who have seen the livilyhoods affected by BPs oil spill...need not worry about the Republicans in Congress blocking the Democrats attempts to raise the $75 million liability cap web page as President Obama got BP to agree to a $20 BILLION fund to help those people out.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

BP agrees to $20 billion fund for spill costs

June 16, 2010: 3:46 PM ET


NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- BP has agreed to put $20 billion into an independently managed account to cover economic damages related to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, President Obama said Wednesday.

Obama announced the agreement after meeting with BP executives at the White House. Chief executive Tony Hayward and chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, were among the execs there to discuss the spill, which has become the worst environmental disaster in US history.

But the fund will not limit the amount BP is responsible to pay, and it will not block states or individuals from pursuing claims in court, the president said.

Kenneth Feinberg, an attorney who served as Special Master of the 9/11 victims compensation fund, will oversee the fund, which will not be controlled by the government or BP.

Obama said he is "absolutely confident" that BP will be able to meet its obligations and that the agreement "sets up a legal and financial frame work for them to do it."

The fund, he said, "will provide substantial assurance that the claims people and businesses have will be honored."

BP (BP) has said repeatedly that it plans to pay all costs related to the spill. But the company has been criticized for not moving fast enough to process claims of economic damage filed by Gulf businesses impacted by the disaster.

Carl-Henric Svanberg, the chairman of BP, said after the meeting that the company will not make any dividend payments for the remainder of the year.

BP had been under intense political pressure to suspend its dividend, which totaled $10.5 billion last year, before the costs of the spill were known.

In addition, BP agreed to set aside $100 million to compensate oil workers idled by the government-imposed moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

Svanberg reiterated that the company will "live up to all our legitimate responsibilities," adding that the deal "should assure the American people that we mean what we say."

He also took the opportunity to apologize on behalf of the company and its employees.

Obama said the liabilities BP faces are "significant." But he called the company "strong" and "viable," adding that nation has an interest in keeping it above water.

While the new framework is an important step in repairing the economic and environmental damage in the Gulf, Obama acknowledged that "we're not going to turn things around overnight."

Under the terms of the agreement, BP will make installments of $5 billion a year for four years, including $5 billion in 2010, according to a White House fact sheet. BP will provide "assurance" for these commitments by setting aside $20 billion in U.S. assets.

As of March, BP had about $7 billion in cash on hand, according to its quarterly financial statement. The company generates over $7 billion in cash each quarter, or about $30 billion per year.

In addition, analysts estimate that BP could comfortably borrow up to $17 billion on relatively short notice.

BP said last week that it has so far spent over $1 billion on containment, clean up and other costs related to the spill.

Analysts say it's too soon to say how much the spill could end up costing BP, but estimates have ranged between $11 billion and $60 billion on the low end, to upwards of $100 billion in the worst case.

Much depends on the amount of oil flowing from the well and whether BP is found guilty of gross negligence.

Reports from congressional committees and in the press have indicated BP chose cheaper, riskier drilling tactics in the lead-up to the disaster.

Meanwhile, government scientists on Tuesday increased their estimate of oil flowing into the Gulf by 50% to between 35,000 and 60,000 barrels per day. That translates into 1.5 million gallons to 2.5 million gallons per day.

Wednesday was the 58th day that oil has been spewing into the Gulf of Mexico.

Documents released by a Senate committee Wednesday show that BP has already given some money to the government for spill-related costs.

BP transferred about $71 million in two separate transactions last week to the Coast Guard for clean up costs, according to the documents.

web page
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The GOP took the side of Big Business/Oil and said to hell with the working class folks...this time they lost. If the GOP had their way, BP would have paid their $75million, then Republicans would be tapping the US taxpayers to pay any further expenses.

Yes or No

web page


FACT CHECK: Obama left blanks in oil spill speech

By CALVIN WOODWARD, Associated Press Writer – Wed Jun 16, 6:19 am ET

WASHINGTON - In assuring Americans that BP won't control the compensation fund for Gulf oil spill recovery, President Barack Obama failed to mention that the government won't control it, either.

That means it's anyone's guess whether the government can, in fact, make BP pay all costs related to the spill.

Obama aimed high in his prime-time Oval Office address Tuesday night - perhaps higher than the facts support and history teaches - as he vowed to restore livelihoods and nature from the still-unfolding calamity in the Gulf of Mexico.

A look at some of his statements and how they compare with those facts:

OBAMA: "We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused and we will do whatever's necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy. ... Tomorrow, I will meet with the chairman of BP and inform him that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness. And this fund will not be controlled by BP. In order to ensure that all legitimate claims are paid out in a fair and timely manner, the account must and will be administered by an independent, third party."

THE FACTS: An independent arbiter is no more bound to the government's wishes than an oil company's. In that sense, there is no certainty BP will be forced to make the Gulf economy whole again or that taxpayers are off the hook for the myriad costs associated with the spill or cleanup. The government can certainly press for that, using legislative and legal tools. But there are no guarantees and the past is not reassuring.

It took 20 years to sort through liability after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, and in the end, punitive damages were slashed by the courts to about $500 million from $2.5 billion. Many people who had lost their livelihoods in the spill died without ever seeing a check.

___

OBAMA: "In the coming days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90 percent of the oil leaking out of the well."

THE FACTS: BP and the administration contend that if all goes as planned, they should be able to contain nearly 90 percent of the worst-case oil flow. But that's a big "if." So far, little has gone as planned in the various remedies attempted to shut off or contain the flow. Possibly as much as 60,000 barrels a day is escaping. BP would need to nearly triple its recovery rate to reach the target.

___

OBAMA: Temporary measures will capture leaking oil "until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely."

THE FACTS: That's the hope, but experts say the relief well runs the same risks that caused the original well to blow out. It potentially could create a worse spill if engineers were to accidentally damage the existing well or tear a hole in the undersea oil reservoir.

___

OBAMA: "From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in our nation's history."

THE FACTS: Early on, the government established a command center and put Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen in charge of coordinating the overall spill response. But officials also repeatedly have emphasized that BP was "responsible" and they have relied heavily on BP in making decisions from hiring cleanup workers to what oil dispersing chemicals to use. Local officials in the Gulf region have complained that often they don't know who's in charge - the government or BP.

___

OBAMA: "We have approved the construction of new barrier islands in Louisiana to try and stop the oil before it reaches the shore."

THE FACTS: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal and local officials pleaded for weeks with the Army Corps of Engineers and the spill response command for permission to build about 40 miles of sand berms along the barrier islands.

State officials applied for an emergency permit to build the berms May 11, but as days went by Jindal became increasingly angry at federal inaction. The White House finally agreed to a portion of the berm plan on June 2. BP then agreed to pay for the project.

The corps was worried that in some cases such a move would alter tides and drive oil into new areas and produce more harm than good.

___

OBAMA: "Already, I have issued a six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. I know this creates difficulty for the people who work on these rigs, but for the sake of their safety and for the sake of the entire region, we need to know the facts before we allow deepwater drilling to continue."

THE FACTS: Obama issued a six-month moratorium on new permits for deepwater drilling but production continues from existing deepwater wells.

___

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, H. Josef Hebert and Jim Drinkard in Washington, Brian Schwaner in New Orleans and Carol Druga in Atlanta contributed to this report.