On the response taking questions from the reporters and then secretary dick cheney and transportation secretary Samuel Skinner and epa administrator william riley. I have a brief statement and then i will defer to the experts. Nearly everybody is aware of the oil spill in alaska and the hardship for local citizens. We all share the sorrow and concern of alaskans and the determination to mount a sustained cleanup effort. Our ultimate goal must be the complete restoration of the ecology and the economy of Prince William sound including the fish, Marine Mammals and birds and other wildlife. The Exxon Corporation has acknowledged responsibility for this spill, and its liability for the damages. Exxon should remain responsible for those damages and for employing civilian personnel necessary to control further damage. However, exxons damages are not enough, and with mr. Stephens and others, i have decided to add additional federal resources to clean up the effort for additional equipment on the scene, and this new effort is going to focus on the job of helping to recover oil now in the water and restoring beaches and other damaged areas. This effort should not in any way relieve exxon from any of the responsibilities or its liabilities. I have asked sam skinner to serve as the coordinator of all of the federal agencies to work with the alaska authorities and exxon. And the admiral of the coast guard will go to alaska to personally oversee the development, and as we know the coast guard has many assets in place right now, and also at my direction, the defense secretary dick cheney is going to make available with personnel to assist in the cleanup, and also to provide with the cleanup activities and assisting with the need for logistics related to the cleanup. Of course these areas will be fragile and cleanup and draining will need to be completed before the ground units are deployed and in addition to the department of defense personnel, i have asked my staff to enable volunteers to participate in cleanup activities. By summer, we hope to develop a corps of alaskan volunteers and when i mean develop facilities, we will be developing remote areas in some cases here. I have asked epa administrator bill riley to coordinate the Long Range Planning of the environment of the sound. And the epa is going to draw on the leading scientists and experts in the work, and consult with other federal agencies assessing Scientific Data regarding the effects of the spill. We wont forget the residents of alaska who have suffered extraordinary economic loss, and when you are talking to these congressmen as i have and get it brought home on a casebycase basis, we have to be concerned, and we are concerned. In addition to paying the damage claims against it, we encourage exxon to increase the local hiring for the cleanup effort, and secretary skinner will also work with exxon and appropriate agencies to develop appropriate loan assistance programs to assist those who have suffered economic injury, and this situation has demonstrated the inadequacy of existing contingency plans, and consequently, i have directed a nationwide review of contingency plans of this type to determine improvements that may need to be necessary. In describing these measures we should not be under any illusions that the job of cleaning up the oil from both of the sea and the affected land areas will be massive, prolonged and frustrating. Nothing we can do to prolong this effort, because we must learn from this experience, and rededicate ourselves to Transportation Safety and realistic planning and accidents that do occur. At the same time our National Security interests in the Domestic Energy supplies should not be forgotten, and the excellent Safety Record that was recorded prior to this incident must be restored and maintained consistently into the future. I really do have to run, and i will turn this over now to sam skinner. I know that the congressmen and the senators thank you very much, mr. President. Thank you very much, and we want to help and we care about what is happening in alaska. Thank you. We have begun immediately to implement the president s plan, and met with the department of resources which secretary cheney will talk about in a minute, and we have met with the exxon people, and meet with that again this afternoon, and we are moving full scale ahead of the Prince William sound and any other areas affected as close to nature as possible. I will take secretary cheney and bill riley would like to. I will be very brief. Obviously, the role at the pentagon in this effort is a supporting one. I feel it is important that we have been actively involved already. And we have had a large number of flights into the c1as to transport equipment, and a team leaving today to see what Additional Support and assistance we can provide. All of this is going to be under the command of general mcnerney and the threestar general who is up there on the scene on a regular basis as well. And the kinds of things that we think that we can be helpful in is to establish the control and the coordinate activities in the area. We plan to send the command and control platform to valdez. And the valdez is of course, the Main Community up there, and there is very little housing to move people into the area, so we think that we can dispatch the amphibious ships into the region to provide housing, and feed those involved in the cleanup effort. We will establish and on the scene task force with the valdez and see what we can do in terms of building up transportation resources. My mandate from the president is to be helpful and supportive and certainly, i will do my best. Mr. Riley. As you know the environment in the sound is rich one in terms of sea life and bird life and mammals and commercial fisheries, and we want to restore it to what it has been. And it has suffered a serious blow and we have no way of knowing or assessing at this time how enduring the impact is going to be. The president has directed that i coordinate the planning for the restoration of the ecology of the sound, and the epa will undertake the restoration of the sound, and it will take some time to get a preliminary idea. The noaa assessment will take about three years. My first job is to bring to bear a group of scientists and looking around the world for the best scientific resources that are available, and people who have dealt with Significant Oil spills before and we want to bring that expertise to this problem. Questions . Can you clarify something on the cost. What is the president saying about that has exxon agreed to that or do you have the go to court for that . Well, first of all, exxon is pouring millions of dollars everyday into the effort supported by the coast guard. A i will be meeting with them to discuss the cost of the effort, and in addition the cost of the senators and the congressman from alaska, we have begun to explore with exxon as well as the federal government, and other possibilities to make economic loans or small or no interest loans available to the people who may be injured as a result of the disaster there. And this effort is a coordinated effort. I cant give you a precise answer on dollars, and that is part of the assessment that is ongoing. It is important to recognize that the president is committed to restoring the area as close as we can to the original condition and the resources to the United States government have been put at my disposal to make sure that it happens, and i plan to use them. And now, the last time that you were here, you stated that you found it almost unbelievable, that this tanker could have run aground given that it was going through the 10mile wide area. Are you satisfied that the alleged intoxication of the captain sufficiently accounts for it . Well, as you know, the moments, and almost moments after the vessel went aground, i asked the national Transportation Safety board to investigate this marine casualty, and that is the job that the coast guard would have done, but because they had a Vessel Traffic Service in the area, i asked the national Transportation Safety board to do it. They are doing a first class job, and when they are completed, we will know more, and that is ul i can tell you on that right now. And can you give us numbers. Well, we will coordinate this, so that we get to everybody. Secretary cheney has a couple of questions. What did the president mean when he said that military personnel would be involved in the cleanup itself . They will be involved in clearly providing transportation support and providing housing in terms of moving the amphibious ships to the area, and one thing that we have to do is to improve the valdez report, and we have to go and involve direct involvement of the military cleanup just as they were in fighting the forest fires in yellowstone last year. I dont know enough to say these are the specific tasks this morning of what they will perform, but we will do our best to help. Which branch would be involved . At this point, every branch is involved and admiral yost is the head of the scene and in charge of the scene, and general mcnerney is the head of the joint task force in alaska and the army is going to be involved and the director of military support here in the pentagon and admiral smith is going to be involved in coordinating to the defense supported there, and it is a unique incident in alaska, in terms of the environmental disaster that has occurred and this kind of the military support to deal with the domestic problem has occurred before and i have a long list of examples if anybody is interested, and that is what we will do now. Are you talking about the thousands . I dont have an answer for that now. Who is in control of the cleanup, exxon or the federal government . I will turn that over to sam skirn. Skinner. There you go, sam. As the president indicated to you, one of the major objectives was to offload the tanker that had 40 million gallons of fuel, and that has been done. As a result of the offloading, and the result of the conversations in the last two days, the coast guard has taken a greater role in the cleanup and obviously, as a result of the president s mandate have a more significant role, and mr. Yost, and vice admiral will be going to alaska again to make sure that the effort is coordinated, but the question is that who is the overall coordinator, and it is the coast guard and their designate, and they will be supporting within their own command structures. Do you believe that the government should take over part of this . Beyond Prince William sound . Are you satisfied with the president s remarks . I am satisfied that the president has come forward the give us a considerable portion of the requests that we have made to him and the staff and the cabinet people are here. I have concern of the oil not going into kodiak sound. We have not asked for federalization, and we have asked for federal control of the further actions that must be taken to try and deal with what we feel is 2 million gallons going out of the sound towards kodiak and we must try to do something about that, and beyond that, and i dont know if you know the extent to which secretary cheney has been involved and he has 100 naval officers working for paul yost now, and not officers, but naval personnel and 22 skimmers up there which is 3 4 of the navys skimmer fleet that is up there now. We have had a tremendous increase of the effort in the last three days, and we are pleased to see the increased effort. We have a request that there is an emergency declared under the stafford act, and there are reservations and pursuing that, and we have the questions of the overall question of who is going to be in control of the review of the contingency plans. It will be worked out, mr. Riley. But between yesterday and today, it is night and day as far as the federal presence in regard to dealing with this massive continuing disaster, and the earthquake lasted four minutes, and this is going to last years. I think that everybody better realize it is going to last years in terms of the recovery. Mr. Secretary allen and back to you, brit. Secretary skinner, about a week ago you said that exxon was doing a great job and full speed ahe ahead, and what has happened in the last week . Did they blow it . No, what has happened is that we have off loaded the vessel and we have seen the flow of the oil out further than we anticipated and it is further and has to be addressed. We are starting to address the longrange cleanup of the islands and the land that has been damaged. This is something that senator stevens has pointed out is going to go on for months, and this effort was beginning, and it was not appropriate to begin it at that time, because they were for coordinating the oil off of the tanker, and the new phase now is the cleanup of the eyend las that have been affected, and that is the effort that the department of defense is going to support along with the coast guard and the citizens of alaska and the president has personally indicated that he wants a civilian involvement, and maybe a youth involvement this spring and summer, but it is going to go on. And the mission has changed, because we have gotten into one phase and we will be moving into another phase. And also, the coast guard is now said by you have to be the overall head of the effort in light of the greatly enlarged federal presence, and why do you resist saying federalized here . Well, it is increased, but federalization has a word of art that may have statutory connotations, but the important thing to recognize is there is a significant increase in the federal effort and we avoid the word federalized because of the legal implication, but i spoke to Governor Cooper who said he is for more cooperation and support along the lines, and he did not ask for federalization, and his letter was inaccurate in that request. So if you have been reporting that he asked for federalization, he has not asked for federalization. Yes, sir, and then you. What is your position on the liability . Is exxon liable for returning the environment to a near pristine condition, and will exxon be asked to foot part of the bill . Yes. Exxon has been spending millions of dollars a day. We are talking about Additional Support from exxon, and administrator riley has been discussing with them, the need to be stored for the environment, and number one, they are liability, and they have acknowledged liability, and working with us in putting the Funds Available to restore, and recover and to repair and all of that is going on a concerted basis with the coast guard. Let me follow up. When you were here last week, mr. Riley said that he had mentioned to exxon the added request of cleaning up the beaches, and doing the extra work to get it to a more natural state and as i recall their response to you was that it was an interesting idea. Can you tell us no, what you are referring to is that they considered establishing a fund for alaskan conversation, and provide monies for future ecological restoration. That is a different matter from the cleanup itself in which they have invested Something Like 350 or so people currently working on the beach cleanup that are working for exxon. But we feel that the scale of this disaster is going to require more people and intensified effort and that is what we intend to see happen now. Mr. Riley, mr. Riley, may i ask you specifically what steps you are going to take to review the plan, and in a broader context to the review already under way in looking at what is happening off of the coast. What specific steps are you taking in light of this . Well, those are two issues. The National Response team is now beginning to look at contingency plans of oil spills and given the spill in the sound is proof it is urgent. And senator lujan and myself and the science academies are looking to ensure to go on with the two leases off of the coast of california and florida and we will look at that. And looking at the leaseholds off of the coast of california and florida, and do you think that you are going to take to the review of well, that effort had a strong expression of president ial concern, and the administration afterall is foregoing 4. 5 million revenue of sales from those leases already, and we were giving already every bit of attention we could to making sure that the extremely important environment and the sensitive areas were protected and if they could not be adequately protected, we could not go forward with the sales. It is my understanding that you have no idea how long it is going to take, how much it is going to cost or what will happen . Well, we are going to have a meeting with the coast guard to assess what is realistically necessary and we have a pledge from the secretary of defense to make that support available. So we do not have well, clearly, there will be a significant increase in the effort. Quantified at this point, and the coast guard Assessment Team has been on the scene and come back to us in my opinion would be ill advised. So we will be, we were making that assessment and putting the program together and once we have it together in the not too distant future, within days, we will back to you. And the time of the important thing to recognize is that the team is on the way today and when they get back, we will have a program to deploy it as it makes sense. We are not putting people up there until they are equipped and trained and ready to do it. Thank you very much. And now, our last question. I dont know what the federal statutes are on this, but coming under the dod, did you discuss the possibility of no, it is a major civilian disaster and treated as such by the president. It is not a National Military disaster that would call for federalization of the coast guard. Thank you. 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