Obama vows to fight oil spill ‘with everything we’ve got for as long it takes’

Calling the widening oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico “the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced,” President Obama vowed Tuesday in a prime-time address that the oil would be cleaned up, the gulf restored, and that oil company BP would fully compensate the spill’s victims.

“We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long it takes,” Obama said. “We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever’s necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.”

He also called upon Americans to move away from its dependence on oil and move toward a “clean energy” economy -- and for Congress to pass comprehensive energy legislation.

“The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is too big and too difficult to meet,” the president said. “ You see, the same thing was said about our ability to produce enough planes and tanks in World War II. The same thing was said about our ability to harness the science and technology to land a man safely on the surface of the moon. And yet, time and again, we have refused to settle for the paltry limits of conventional wisdom.”

The speech -- the first of Obama’s presidency delivered from the Oval Office -- came even as the government upped its estimates of oil flowing from a pipe a mile deep in the Gulf of Mexico, saying that as much as 60,000 barrels a day could be leaking into the ocean, and as BP continued its efforts to stem the spread of the spill.

The president vowed that the administration and BP would clean up 90% of the oil in gulf before the end of the summer. But he also spoke of damage to the region that would linger for years.

In part, the president’s address was a bid to reverse sinking public approval of his administration’s efforts to respond to the disaster. Obama offered a strident defense of the White House’s actions in the days and weeks after the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded April 20, while criticizing BP, which, members of Congress allege, ignored safety concerns on the rig in favor of cost control.

Obama pledged to make Gulf Coast residents and businesses whole, and said that a compensation fund would be set up that would be funded by BP and administrated by an independent third party. All legitimate claims, he said, would be paid in a “fair and timely manner.”

He also announced a long-term plan to reverse the environmental damage to the gulf. “We must make a commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment,” he said.

The president will meet with BP executives Wednesday at the White House to discuss the fund, which could run into the billions.

Obama also called on Congress to pass a comprehensive energy bill without going so far as to endorse limits on carbon emissions. Disagreement over such a provision has stalled such a bill in the Senate.

The president earlier Tuesday named a former Justice Department inspector general, Michael Bromwich, to revamp the agency that oversees oil drilling and said he would serve as an industry watchdog.

“At this agency, industry insiders were put in charge of industry oversight,” Obama said in the address. “Oil companies showered regulators with gifts and favors, and were essentially allowed to conduct their own safety inspections and write their own regulations.”

Hours before the president’s address, the Interior Department dramatically revised its flow estimates after the pipe leaking into the gulf was severed this month as part of a plan to stanch the spill, increasing the rate oil was spilling into the water. The agency also said that BP was launching a second containment effort that could capture up to 28,000 barrels of the flow a day.

Earlier in the day, Obama wrapped up his fourth visit to the gulf since the April explosion, touring Alabama, Mississippi and Florida over two days, meeting with local officials and speaking to small business owners before returning to Washington.