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Obama to Meet Oil Spill Victims' Families

   VOA News 10 June 2010

   U.S.  President  Barack Obama will meet Thursday with relatives of the
   11 people killed in the oil rig explosion off the Louisiana coast that
   caused a massive oil leak.
   The  White  House says the president will offer his condolences to the
   family  members.   He  will  also  ask  them their thoughts on safety
   conditions  at off-shore oil wells and how the government could change
   the laws to make sure future deepwater drilling is safe.
   In  the  seven  weeks  since  the explosion, the resulting massive oil
   spill in the Gulf of Mexico has proven extremely difficult to contain.
   Coast  Guard Admiral Thad Allen, who leads the federal response to the
   spill,  says  the  containment cap on the well is now capturing 15,000
   barrels  of  crude oil a day.  But he says officials are still trying
   to determine exactly how much oil is leaking from the well.
   Admiral  Allen  also  said the Coast Guard has given oil company BP 72
   hours  to  produce an updated long-term containment plan that includes
   measures  to  ensure  the capture of the oil will not be uninterrupted
   for any reason, including hurricanes.
   In London, BP shares were down four percent, Thursday, after initially
   hitting a 13-year low (down 11 percent), amid investor worry about the
   ongoing   cost  of  cleanup.   But  BP  said  it  has  the  financial
   flexibility  and  capacity  to  deal with the costs related to the oil
   spill, and there was no reason for its share prices to fall.
   Meanwhile,  Interior  Secretary  Ken Salazar pledged to a Senate panel
   Wednesday  that  the  government  will  get  to  the root cause of the
   spill.  He said the government and the American people will know what
   happened, and those responsible will be held accountable.
   Mr.  Obama  is  expected  to  return  to  the Gulf Coast next week, to
   inspect   how   the   spilled  oil  is  affecting  the  coastlines  of
   Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
   Oil  residue  continues  to spread to fragile Gulf coastlines, coating
   wildlife  in  a black ooze and threatening the ecology and livelihoods
   of the region.

   Some information for this report was provided by AP and Reuters.

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