different points. the yet to be finished relief wells will be used to execute a shof called bottom kill. more mud and cement will be injected into bedrock 2 1/2 miles below the sea floor. this as new estimates are out at the bp price tag. the company could be fined as much as $21 billion if it is confined to commit gross negligence or willful misconduct. the fine could drop to $17.6 billion if the government credits the company for the oil it has already recovered. joining us once again tonight, former oil executive, bob cavnar, who writes about the industry at dailyhurricane.com. he s also author of disaster on the horizon, which is due out in october. good evening, bob. hi, keith. static kill. where did this one come from? have we heard of this before? it gets confusing sometimes. well, that s the latest part of the most recent shape shift of bp. when admiral al will know compelled bp to go ahead with the capping stack. you ll remember that they came up with this well integri
our language at the trivial expense of just a little oil in the gulf of mexico. static kill. our third story in the countdown, after allowing 5 million barrels of oil to poison the ocean, bp is once again putting its hopes into a glorified injection of mud. the obvious question is, will it work? perhaps the more important one is, how will we know? in a moment, bob cavnar will join us. tests earlier in the day prompting bp to go ahead with its critical so-called static kill effort, in which once again heavy drilling mud is pumped into the top of the well. the operation intended to help plug the unstable well. it was sealed with a temporary cap last month. it could last, the operation, that is, until thursday. engineers won t know for more than a week if the procedure worked. and while bp maintains static kill may be enough to seal the well, retired coast guard admiral thad allen, who s in charge there, insists the gusher will have to be plugged from two
blocks a tax cut bill they helped write. bp s incoming ceo says it s time to scale back the cleanup effort. and what about the leak? we haven t seen oil flow into the gulf since the 15th of july. that s because the underwater camera is no longer pointed at the leaky wellhead. with the media moving on, who s keeping bp accountable? bob cavnar will joining us. . it s the hottest swedish export since abba. the dancing queen the girl with the hollywood tattoo. we ll explore the story behind the global phenomenon. american idol shake up. so this is it, huh? ellen quits. kara might be fired. who will replace them? i m leaving after a year and a half of taking tough questions to be a judge on american idol . is that right? all that and more now on countdown. check it out, dog.
and harry reid actually said that tempers had flared so high, republicans are or democrats were so angry at republicans for doing this, and felt like it was such a brazen maneuver that harry reid told everybody, basically, to cool off. that the tempers weren t helping anything. but they re going to spend a couple days that they could spend other days, they re going to spend doing this. annie lowery, many thanks for watching the senate tonight. thank you. coming up, out of sight, out of mind for bp. the company calling for a scale back on the clean up because it s becoming harder to find the oil. bob cavnar joins us next with his thoughts. and a little later, hollywood looks to cash in on the worldwide phenomenon that is the girl with the dragon tattoo. what makes these three books so popular? what is is nearly sold every second in this country.