BP Agrees to Start $20 Billion Fund for Gulf Disaster Victims

JUDY WOODRUFF: Billions of dollars will start flowing from BP to victims of the Gulf ____ _______. President Obama made the announcement today, after _________ ____ _______last night that the government will make BP pay.

U.S. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I'm pleased to announce that BP has agreed to set aside $20 billion to ____ __________for damages resulting from this spill.

JUDY WOODRUFF: That word came hours after BP's ____ __________ arrived at the White House. They met for the first time with the president and at length with his ____ _________and others.

Mr. Obama said he got what he asked for.

BARACK OBAMA: This $20 billion will provide _____________ ___________ that the claims people and businesses have will be honored. It's also important to emphasize this is not a cap. The people of the Gulf have ___ ____________ that BP will meet its obligations to them.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Kenneth Feinberg ____ _________the payments. He ran the 9/11 _________ ______________fund and is currently the government's pay czar, setting salary limits for bailed-out companies. In addition, BP will contribute $100 million to help _____ ________ __________who have been idled by the federal _________on deep-sea _________. After today's talks, the BP chairman, Carl-Henric Svanberg, also announced that the _______ _______ will suspend dividend payments to its shareholders for the rest of the year to ensure it meets commitments to the Gulf Coast.

CARL-HENRIC SVANBERG, chairman, BP: I would like to take this opportunity to apologize to the American people __ ________ ___ all the employees in BP, many of whom are living on the ____ ______.

I hear comments sometimes that large oil companies are -- are greedy companies or don't care. But that is not the case in BP. We _______ _________ the small people.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Since the spill began ____ _____ ____, BP's stock has been hammered down to half its previous value. And, in recent days, talk of a claims ____ raised new concerns in Britain. Prime Minister David Cameron warned today that BP needed a _____ ___ ___________that there won't be claims entertained that are three or four times removed from the ___ _____. But President Obama's _____ _____ about BP in his televised address last night earned him plaudits from some ________ __________, including Senator Dick Durbin of ________ .

SEN. RICHARD DURBIN, D-Ill.: This president has been very _______ and __________ that British Petroleum, this oil company, is going to be held responsible for the damage that's been done. It will be at their expense, and not at the expense of _________ __________, that we will help the businesses that are affected and do everything within our power to restore the -- the _____________which has occurred to the _____________.

JUDY WOODRUFF: On the other hand, _________ ___________ ________ Mitch McConnell criticized the president for citing the spill in a renewed appeal for energy and ________ _____________.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, R-Ky., minority leader: The fact that the White House wants to use this crisis as an excuse to push more of its ___________ _________on the American people, with the same kind of arguments it used to push health care, is really nothing short of startling.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Along the ______ _______, reaction to last night's address was decidedly mixed, including this sampling at a marina in ________ ____________.

MAN: In my opinion, he didn't talk enough about stopping the oil.

MAN: He's president, and there's only so much he can do. I mean, ____________ _______is in BP's hands.

JUDY WOODRUFF: In the Gulf today, BP cranked up a new system to burn up to __________ _________ of ____a day. The oil-burning is part of BP's larger plan to capture or burn ______ _______ _______a day by the end of the month. That would be roughly 90 percent of the estimated total flow from the ________ ____.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1034