ones who should be compensated. i have, certainly, nothing to hide. we ve been open booked. we have a lot of work that we have done to put our fishermen in place and to support our local economy. we will continue to do that. but we can t get off the mark here. and this is important, piers. that one of the main things that has happened is we have had a spin on what is really going on. we have forgetting, this is the largest oil spill disaster ever, ever. and we somehow have gotten away from the fact of the damage that has been created. craig taffaro, thank you very much. when we come back, the environmental cost of a disaster in the gulf. cnn correspondent philippe cousteau is in the region. [ jelani ] neither of my parents went to college. something that was drilled in me early on, you know, college is the place for you. it s my number one goal. students like me,
has been created. craig taffaro, thank you very much. when we come back, the environmental cost of a disaster in the gulf. cnn correspondent philippe cousteau is in the region. let me tell you about a very important phone call i made. when i got my medicare card, i realized i needed an aarp. medicare supplement insurance card, too. medicare is one of the great things about turning 65,
gulf, than it is that damaged well, taking the government at its word, at this point, just as slippery as cleaning up all of that oil out there. as craig taffaro told us yesterday, if a quarter of the oil is still out there in the gulf, you have to keep in mind, one quarter of 200 million gallons of oil is about 50 million gallons. that s still five times the size of the exxon valdez disaster. john and kiran? all right, as we said, conflicting viewpoints by scientists themselves about where the oil may have gone. we ll continue to watch that, of course. also new this morning, it could be elena kagan s big day. expecting to consimple kagan to the supreme court today. right now, she s considered a virtual lock. five republicans have signaled she has her support. kagan would become only the fourth woman ever to sit on the high court. an american airlines flight from new york to los angeles is
mopup operation to st. bernard parish president craig taffaro. is it possible that people in the gulf coast are so weary and so beaten up that it s difficult to believe their own eyes? no, i don t think so because we believe what we see and that s why we continue to have concerns. reporter: so taffaro s staff goes out every day, to capture the image of the oil to convince bp that the cleanup operations are sorely needed. if bp says, guys, we don t need you anymore. that puts us in part in an entire community in no-man s land. reporter: no man s land because they re stuck. it s no wonder louis wearing the fisherman s prayer. to keep us the hope and courage. the faith and challenge that lie ahead. reporter: in the end, government officials may find it
that wasn t in the speech, details on the escrow account but there were other things peopled wanted to hear. the president did not mention those new flow rate numbers that you mention at the top, now up to 60,000 barrels a day, much and much different than what bp said at the beginning when the range was 1,000 to 5,000 barrels. maybe that was not mentioned because it doesn t really fit into the president s narrative about how the federal government really does have a handle on this now. he didn t get into details about that escrow account. he didn t give a dollar figure. he also didn t say which third party independently would run this escrow account. white house aides say the reason he didn t go into detail is the president wants to hash this out behind closed doors with those bp executives, not get ahead of this meeting this morning at the white house. a lot of eyes though on that meeting to find out whether bp s feet really will be held to the fire. we will hear from the preside