Tony Hayward Puts Deputy in Charge of Oil Spill
Updaed 3:08 p.m. ET
BP CEO Tony Hayward will hand over day-to-day operations involving the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico to Bob Dudley, a BP managing director who has helped manage the company's on-the-ground response since May.
The news came in a Sky News interview with BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
It was not immediately clear what motivated the change, but Hayward has faced growing criticism for the company's handling of the spill and for comments many considered insensitive. He was grilled by a Congressional committee Thursday about the company's decisions leading up to the April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that unleashed one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Svanberg also told Sky News' Jeff Randall that some of Hayward's gaffes have interfered with the company's efforts to limit fallout from the disaster.
"It is clear Tony has made remarks that have upset people," he said.
Hayward appeared Thursday before a House Commerce and Energy Committee panel probing the causes of the explosion that killed 11 and resulting spill. Lawmakers said his responses to questions seemed to come from a script passed along by attorneys - he frequently said he was not a party to important decisions and that the company would conduct its own investigation -and described him as "evasive."
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the BP executive that in his committee's review of 30,000 items, there was "not a single e-mail or document that you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well."
Hayward's testimony was initially interrupted by a female protester with what appeared to be oil smeared on her hands and face who yelled, in part, "you need to be charged with a crime."
Before beginning his own testimony, Hayward was buffeted by scathing criticism from lawmakers from both parties for more than an hour.
Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, played a heard-wrenching video from a committee session on the Gulf Coast in which two widows whose husbands were killed in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion suggested that GP had put profits before safety. "These are now widows with small children to take care of, and they are the symbols and the faces of this disaster," Braley said.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he agreed with the call of Democrats on the panel for answers. But Barton accused the White House of conducting a "$20 billion shakedown" by requiring oil giant BP to establish a fund to compensate those hurt by the Gulf Coast oil spill.
"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House" on Wednesday, Barton said.
But Rep. Ed Markey disagreed, saying it was "not a slush fund, not a shakedown. ... 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's BP's spill," the Massachusetts Democrat said, "but it is America's ocean, and it is America's citizens who are being harmed. ... No, this is not a shakedown of the company."
Residents and business owners along the Gulf Coast here were hoping to hear some real answers from Hayward Thursday, CBS News Correspondent Don Teague reported. But, like members of Congress, most coastal residents were angry and frustrated.
"He's not answering nobody's question," said Dodie Vegas. "He's just going around and around with every question that he can. I don't think any of them has gotten a straight answer yet."
Across the island, seafood wholesaler Dean Blanchard was even more blunt.
"I know he's gonna lie because he has to open his mouth to talk, and everything that's been coming out of his mouth so far has been a lie," Blanchard said.
Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican, said that BP "appears to have taken their eye off the ball." Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, told Hayward "BP has not learned from previous mistakes."
Some of the sharpest criticism came from Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. "We are not small people. But we wish to get our lives back," he told Hayward. "I'm sure you'll get your life back, and with a golden parachute to England."
It was a reference to Hayward's much-criticized earlier remark that some day he hoped to get "my life back" and to comments on the White House driveway on Wednesday by BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg that "we care about the small people" of the Gulf Coast.
Hayward received $4.7 million in 2009 in total salary, performance bonus and other non-cash compensation, roughly 27 percent higher than the $3.7 million he received a year earlier, according to an AP review of filings available on BP's Web site
Sky News also reported Friday on BP's plans to $20 billion escrow account it agreed to set up for compensating victims.
BP agreed Wednesday to set up the fund, which will be administered by dispute resolution expert Ken Feinberg. On Thursday it said it would set aside earnings from U.S. operations and sell off at least $10 billion in none-core assets.
Now the company has hired a team of advisers to assist in the sales Sky News' Mark Kleinman reported Friday.
BP's moves to raise cash could far exceed the $10 billion in asset sales it has already discussed. In addition to the $20 billion compensation fund, it is expected to face billions more in cleanup costs and legal liabilities.
The company said earlier this week that it would suspend the payment of stock dividends this year.
Copyright 2010 CBS. All rights reserved. BP CEO Tony Hayward will hand over day-to-day operations involving the oil spill cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico to Bob Dudley, a BP managing director who has helped manage the company's on-the-ground response since May.
The news came in a Sky News interview with BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg.
Special Section: Disaster in the Gulf
It was not immediately clear what motivated the change, but Hayward has faced growing criticism for the company's handling of the spill and for comments many considered insensitive. He was grilled by a Congressional committee Thursday about the company's decisions leading up to the April 20 blast on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig that unleashed one of the worst environmental disasters in U.S. history.
Svanberg also told Sky News' Jeff Randall that some of Hayward's gaffes have interfered with the company's efforts to limit fallout from the disaster.
"It is clear Tony has made remarks that have upset people," he said.
Hayward appeared Thursday before a House Commerce and Energy Committee panel probing the causes of the explosion that killed 11 and resulting spill. Lawmakers said his responses to questions seemed to come from a script passed along by attorneys - he frequently said he was not a party to important decisions and that the company would conduct its own investigation -and described him as "evasive."
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the BP executive that in his committee's review of 30,000 items, there was "not a single e-mail or document that you paid even the slightest attention to the dangers at this well."
Hayward's testimony was initially interrupted by a female protester with what appeared to be oil smeared on her hands and face who yelled, in part, "you need to be charged with a crime."
Before beginning his own testimony, Hayward was buffeted by scathing criticism from lawmakers from both parties for more than an hour.
Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, played a heard-wrenching video from a committee session on the Gulf Coast in which two widows whose husbands were killed in the Deepwater Horizon rig explosion suggested that GP had put profits before safety. "These are now widows with small children to take care of, and they are the symbols and the faces of this disaster," Braley said.
Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the senior Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee, said he agreed with the call of Democrats on the panel for answers. But Barton accused the White House of conducting a "$20 billion shakedown" by requiring oil giant BP to establish a fund to compensate those hurt by the Gulf Coast oil spill.
"I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House" on Wednesday, Barton said.
But Rep. Ed Markey disagreed, saying it was "not a slush fund, not a shakedown. ... 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's BP's spill," the Massachusetts Democrat said, "but it is America's ocean, and it is America's citizens who are being harmed. ... No, this is not a shakedown of the company."
Residents and business owners along the Gulf Coast here were hoping to hear some real answers from Hayward Thursday, CBS News Correspondent Don Teague reported. But, like members of Congress, most coastal residents were angry and frustrated.
"He's not answering nobody's question," said Dodie Vegas. "He's just going around and around with every question that he can. I don't think any of them has gotten a straight answer yet."
Across the island, seafood wholesaler Dean Blanchard was even more blunt.
"I know he's gonna lie because he has to open his mouth to talk, and everything that's been coming out of his mouth so far has been a lie," Blanchard said.
Rep. Michael Burgess, a Texas Republican, said that BP "appears to have taken their eye off the ball." Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn, told Hayward "BP has not learned from previous mistakes."
Some of the sharpest criticism came from Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich. "We are not small people. But we wish to get our lives back," he told Hayward. "I'm sure you'll get your life back, and with a golden parachute to England."
It was a reference to Hayward's much-criticized earlier remark that some day he hoped to get "my life back" and to comments on the White House driveway on Wednesday by BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg that "we care about the small people" of the Gulf Coast.
Hayward received $4.7 million in 2009 in total salary, performance bonus and other non-cash compensation, roughly 27 percent higher than the $3.7 million he received a year earlier, according to an AP review of filings available on BP's Web site
Sky News also reported Friday on BP's plans to $20 billion escrow account it agreed to set up for compensating victims.
BP agreed Wednesday to set up the fund, which will be administered by dispute resolution expert Ken Feinberg. On Thursday it said it would set aside earnings from U.S. operations and sell off at least $10 billion in none-core assets.
Now the company has hired a team of advisers to assist in the sales Sky News' Mark Kleinman reported Friday.
BP's moves to raise cash could far exceed the $10 billion in asset sales it has already discussed. In addition to the $20 billion compensation fund, it is expected to face billions more in cleanup costs and legal liabilities.
The company said earlier this week that it would suspend the payment of stock dividends this year.
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06/19/10: The Daily Caller reported:
Crucial offers to help clean up BP?s oil spill ?have come from Belgian, Dutch, and Norwegian firms that ? possess some of the world?s most advanced oil skimming ships.? But the Obama administration wouldn?t accept the help, because doing so would require it to do something past presidents have routinely done: waive rules imposed by the Jones Act, a law backed by unions.
The law itself permits the president to waive these requirements, and such waivers were ?granted, promptly, by the Bush administration,? in the aftermath of hurricanes and other emergencies. But Obama has refused to do so, notes David Warren in the Ottawa Citizen:
??The BP clean-up effort in the Gulf of Mexico is hampered by the Jones Act. This is a piece of 1920s protectionist legislation, that requires all vessels working in U.S. waters to be American-built, and American-crewed. So ? the U.S. Coast Guard ? can?t accept, and therefore don?t ask for, the assistance of high-tech European vessels specifically designed for the task in hand.?
It is reported that after 53 days, President Obama finally waved the Jones Act. If all of this is true:
1) Why did it take the President 53 days? 2) Why haven?t more news agencies made this an issue?
Lou
www.Anonymous-VPN.de.tc
You just cannot go against the Word of God and win.
So is the Gulf of Mexico oil spill a curse on the United States for trying to divide up the land of Israel?
Or could it just be a coincidence?
Could all of the examples cited above just be a string of coincidences?
You make the call............
Is Obama taking the golden ear rings from the ears of BP?
Gosh its great just randomly opening up the bible and place
a finger on a quote. It works so well!
And Gideon had threescore and ten sons of his body begotten: for he had many wives.
Dang Jews sure were prolific in them days. You go FLDS Church! The bible says its OKAY.
#5) Between August 16th and 30th, 2005, Ariel Sharon expelled 9,480 Jewish settlers from 21 settlements in Gaza and four settlements in the northern West Bank.
On January 4th, 2006, Sharon had a stroke, and he fell into a coma and is now in a persistent vegetative state.
#6) The U.S. had strongly pressured Sharon to evacuate those settlers from Gaza.
On August 29th, 2005 the storm that would become Hurricane Katrina formed, and it devastated New Orleans and the surrounding areas to such an extent that they still have not recovered. That devastating storm caused at least 200 billion dollars in damage.
#7) In June of 2001, George W. Bush sent CIA director George Tenet to Israel in an attempt to implement the Mitchell Plan. The Mitchell plan called for, among other things, the cessation of new building in the Jewish settlements.
On the same day that Tenet met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, tropical storm Allison formed in the Gulf of Mexico and moved over Texas, the President's home state, and dropped over 28 inches of rain over the Houston area alone, causing over $4 billion dollars in damage. The storm then moved to Florida and up the east coast causing damage as far as Pennsylvania. The meteorologists called Allison the "worst tropical storm in history".
#1) On April 30, 2003, America was positioned to be the catalyst for the so-called "solution" to the Middle East crisis. As Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas was sworn in, the "Road Map" peace plan was set in motion.
The very next day began the worst month of tornadoes in United States history - more than 500 in a single month. Under normal conditions, 1,000 tornadoes hit the United States each year, but in just eight days that May, 375 twisters ripped across the heartland of America.
#2) May 9, 2003, President Bush addressed students at the University of South Carolina. Bush called on the Palestinians to embrace the roadmap to peace, and Bush expressed his desire to see the flag of Palestine raised over a free nation.
Hours later, tornadoes returned and Oklahoma City again became the target for deadly twisters, reducing many businesses and homes to splinters and bricks. The tornadoes of May devastated the Midwest with the third worst property damage in American history.
#3) On October 30, 1991, in a meeting scheduled by George H.W. Bush, Israelis and Palestinians discussed ways to achieve peace in the Middle East. Opening talks focused on trading parts of Israel for a peace agreement.
That same day, thousands of miles away, a powerful storm was brewing off of the coast of Nova Scotia. On October 31st, what would be known as "The Perfect Storm" smashed into New England, pummeling the President's Kennebunkport, Maine home with waves 30 feet high. It was a storm so rare that the weather patterns required to create it only happen about once every 100 years.
So is there any evidence of a curse on those who try to divide the land of Israel today?
Yes!!!!................