out should i even come. that s going to have a business effect as well. thanks for keeping track of this. we am shat it. three weeks after the explosion, what s making the cleanup in the gulf so challenge sng the source of the leak saul most a mile under water where there s high pressure and total dark nsz. it s why bp says it s having such trouble gapping the gusher. sunlight can t penetrate the water past 1500 feet. it s pitch black. at 5,000 feet below sea level, there s 2300 pounds of pressure pure square inch. enough pressure to crash a submarine. naturally occurring methane gas in the ground can be much more damaging. it s believed to have caused the explosion and fire on the deep water horizon rig. the water is near freezing, look at all these things working together against us. normally twauter temperature is in the 70s on the surface this time of year. this water is 40 degrees.
i m jim acosta. i m kate bolduan. thanks for joining us. this time every saturday we spend a half hour digging deep into issues that directly affect you. today we are talking about that massive oil leak in the gulf of mexico. here is what we know so far. the leak started april 20th after the deep water horizon oil rig exploded and sank. since then bp says it s been leaking more than 200,000 gallons of crude daily into the gulf. the coast guard has authorized bp to use chemicals to disperse the oil at the source of the leak 5,000 feet below the sea. it s hoped the chemicals will break the oil apart and keep it from reaching the surface which would cause more problems they say. not everyone, though is on board with this effort. the director of the louisiana health and hospital ps says federal regulators dismissed his state s concerns about the chemicals. kate, as you know, oil is only washed ashore in a few places. let s see what kind of impact
an hour later. a true story of survival here in oklahoma city. by the way, this city is the most prone city in the world for tornadoes. amazing. if you didn t know it already. if you want to see tornadoes, this is where you want to be. none of us hope to see anything like that. thank you very much. we wish the best to those families who are recovering with that damage. thank you. if you are in oklahoma or kansas and you want to share pictures, images that you ve been able to capture, e-mail them to firstperson@msnbc.com or up load them at firstperson@msnbc.com. the massive oil spill in the gulf of mexico is the focus of three hearings on capitol hill today and another in louisiana. the senate s energy and natural resources committee is demanding answers from the leaders of the bp, transocean and halliburton. all three companies are facing lawsuits related to the deep water horizon oil rig disaster three weeks ago that killed 11 people and led to what s being called one of the w
most likely to sink and stay out of the ocean, off the shore. bp has already sprayed 160,000 gallons of dispersant on the oil slick, not to mention the 6,000 gallons pumped down to the leak well beneath the surface of the ocean. that s more than has ever been used on any oil spill ever. the dispersants do work. sort of. oil spills don t have good news, only less terrible news. the chemicals in the dispersants are themselves toxic. probably. we don t really know what s in them. the companies that manufacture dispersants consider that information to be proprietary. a company called nalco makes a product called correct it. they posted a safety document on the spill response website set up by the oil rig s owner, deepwater horizon and warns you not to get the dispersant on your eyes, on your skin or on your clothing and also definitely don t breathe in the vapor.
can you donate $10 by texting the word red cross to the number 90999. now in completely different tennessee news, talking points memo today alerted us to a situation that began unfolding about a month ago in a tennessee local courtroom involving a group of folks with a real hankering to see president obama s birth certificate. you can find out more about them online at a website for the american grand jury. the american grand jury folks want you to know that president obama was a cia operative while he went to columbia university. they re holding a trial about it. elsewhere they note he never went to columbia at all. they also want to let you know what the mainstream media won t tell you which of course is that the deep water horizon oil rig was blown up by a north korean were to pedo. obviously. their core belief is that president obama is not a u.s.