wrong with me. you disagree? it seems unnecessary. unless it s clearly labeled. let me get to the news now. bp is reportedly to fix the gushing oil in the gulf. according to the the wall street journal it s part of an effort to show investors that the company has capped its growing financial liabilities. under pressure from the u.s. government, the oil giant is also preparing a series of backup plans in case its current operations fail. meanwhile, an investigation by the associated press finds that more than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells remain in the gulf of mexico and no one is checking to see if they are leaking. calling the gulf, a, quote, environmental mine field. the ap says the oldest of the wells were abandoned in the late 1940s, raising questions about whether their seals remain intact. well, that is just i mean, at this point, you would think you
might be. whole other reason you love that. bill, thank you so much. now let s get to the gulf oil disaster. on day 77, bad weather slowing the cleanup off the coast of alabama, mississippi and florida. that bad weather is expected to last for at least the next several days. bp now says it s spent more than $3 billion so far trying to stop the gushing oil and on cleanup and payments of claims. bp also says it s made payments on about half of the 95,000 claims filed so far. meantime, federal authorities closed a new section of the gulf off louisiana to fishing. about a third of the waters off louisiana are now off limits to fishing. huge implications there especially for livelihoods. nbc s charles hadlock is live for us in venice. they re testing this giant super skimmer out there in the gulf s. that going to give us some hope? reporter: well, everyone s
mcchrystal. mcchrystal was relieved of duty last week following the flap over his rolling stone magazine profile. day 72 of the oil catastrophe in the gulf. here is the latest. two wives of workers killed when the bp oil rig exploded will testify on capitol hill next hour. they are expected to talk about holding those responsible for the disasteringable. choppy seas forcing bp to alter its cleanup plan in the gulf. massive waves of hurricane alex caused officials to send oil skimming ships back to shore from louisiana to the florida panhandle. bp hoped to bring in a third vessel to contain the gushing oil. now that s bendel aid about a week due to the rough seas. researchers estimate that anywhere from a million and a half gallons to 2.5 million gallons of oil are gushing into the gulf every day. there are more accusations bp isn t doing everything it can to clean it up. in about an hour, fred mccallister, dallas investment banker, is scheduled to testify
drilling, but, more importantly, with respect to whether the nation continues to rely on fossil fuels. that s what the democratic party is doing behind the leadership of the president and that s what the republicans are trying to stop at every turn. are both parties at risk here? is there a chance you can overstep because my read on the situation, i m guessing yours is, too, that the american people are saying, quit with the politics and plug this gushing oil. do something already and quit sniping at each other. i think there is a risk, but there is also an opportunity and it s exactly the one that you mentioned, chris. i think the president by pulling in bipartisan leadership yesterday into the white house is looking for that opportunity. this spill in the gulf is like an alarm clock that is ringing very loudly next to our bed. again, it was president nixon who said, you know, we re relying too much on foreign oil and we have to do something to change our energy future and preside
soak our yards in color. get our hands a little busier. our dollars a little stronger. and our thinking a little greener. let s grab all the bags and all the plants and all the latest tools out there. so we can turn all these savings into more colorful shades of doing. more saving. more doing. that s the power of the home depot. we ve made a special buy on off clip-on for just $6.88 each. bp says one of the relief wells designed to kill the gushing oil at the bottom of the gulf of mexico is now 12,000