[Tony Harris, Cnn Anchor:] Hi, everybody. Good morning. Live from Studio 7 at CNN world headquarters, the big stories for Tuesday, July 27th. Ninety-nine days into the Gulf oil crisis.
[Tony Hayward, Ceo, Bp:] Again, I haven't seen this. I don't know the precise number. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
[Harris:] But he knows he is being kicked to the curb. BP chief Tony Hayward getting his life back like he wanted after a slew of missteps and awful second quarter financial results. Plus
[Unidentified Female:] While we will tell them what the pitfalls are if they overstay, it's the better choice in their mind to come out here.
[Harris:] Illegal in America, not just an issue for non-whites. Europeans also have reason to worry. And
[Unidentified Male:] My mother-in-law kind of got tired of me doing a whole lot of nothing there for a while.
[Harris:] forced into new territory to get through these difficult financial times. It's success taking root. Good morning, everyone. I'm Tony Harris. Those stories and your comments right here, right now in the "CNN NEWSROOM". He is the public face of the Gulf oil disaster, the target of anger and frustration for those whose lives and livelihoods were lost or disrupted. Today, on day 99 of the disaster, BP announced that CEO Tony Hayward is out. Replacing Hayward, Bob Deadly, an American with Gulf Coast roots. Deadly says the disaster will alter the way BP does things in the future.
[Bob Dudley, Bp Managing Director:] There's no question we're going to learn a lot from this accident in the Gulf Coast. It's going to be about equipment, people, different companies. And as a result of that, we're going to learn a lot, both BP and the industry. And I'm sure there will be changes.
[Harris:] OK. Let's take a closer look at Bob Deadly. He is a chemical engineer with more than 30 years of experience in the oil industry. He has been in charge of the day-to-day operations in the Gulf Coast since June. He is also a native of the region. He grew up in Mississippi and has often spoken of swimming and fishing along the coast. He says the cleanup is a personal mission. We want to find out how people along the Gulf Coast are reacting to the changes in leadership at BP. For that, we turn to our David Mattingly. He is in New Orleans. David, what is the reaction from residents and others to the news that Tony Hayward will be replaced with a Gulf Coast native?
[David Mattingly, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, Tony, there were three things that Tony Hayward said and did that really said him apart and created a great distance between him and the people of the Gulf Coast. It's when at the time that he was rather exasperated about how long it was taking to cap the well when he said that he wanted his life back. And then there was the vacation he took where he went back home to the yachting race where he spent time on his boat. That did not sit well with people here as the oil was coming ashore in the Florida panhandle. And then there was that other times where he was making comments that made him seem like, accordingly to people here, that he just wasn't getting what they were going through. But in terms of his departure now, we're hearing from people like New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, who summed it up best, saying it's the actions on the ground here that are going to speak more loudly in the long term than any change at the top of BP.
[Mayor Mitch Landrieu , New Orleans:] It's a welcome change, but just changing faces and not changing corporate philosophies doesn't really get you anywhere. The people in the Gulf South want to know that BP is completely and totally committed to completely making it right, and that means not leaving just because the well is capped. Again, you know, it's important. You've got to capture the oil, you've got to clean the coast, make sure everybody gets compensated, and then start thinking about how BP is going to completely make it right long term for what it is that they've done down here.
[Mattingly:] That term, "make it right," something that BP keeps repeating in the television spots that they're adding here, that they will be here to clean up the oil, they will be here to compensate people, and they will make this right. And those were words that first came out of Tony Hayward's mouth but, again, it's the actions that follow that are going to speak loudest Tony.
[Harris:] All right. David Mattingly for us. David, good to see you. Thank you. Greenpeace protesters today shut down about a dozen or more BP stations in London. They covered BP signs and put up posters, pretty clever ones like this: "Closed. Moving beyond petroleum." Not bad. The demonstrators also erected gates around the stations and pulled a safety switch to shut off the power. Carter Evans is standing by at the New York Stock Exchange. The announcement of Tony Hayward's departure came along with BP's earnings report. And Carter, what do these numbers look like? And financially speaking, is BP going to feel the fallout over this spill for a long time to come?
[Carter Evans, Cnn Business Correspondent:] Well, you know, BP's certainly going to feel it. This is a massive, massive cost to clean up this spill, and it's not going to be an easy thing for investors to swallow. We're talking about $17.2 billion. That is the exact figure in focus today, and that's how much BP said it lost in just three months between April and June. Now, the plunge comes largely because of a more than $32 billion charge to cover the costs to clean up the spill. Now, that sum should cover most of the direct costs, but the company does admit that it cannot estimate future claims from lawsuits and other penalties. Additionally, BP may even have to pay fines to the U.S. government for violating the Clean Water Act, and some estimates put that tally as high as $18 billion, and that would be in addition to the $32 billion Tony.
[Harris:] You know, Carter, it's almost impossible to look past what happened in the Gulf, but you know what's odd about this is when you get beyond the oil spill, BP is actually, from what I understand, performing fairly well.
[Evans:] Right. Well, you know, that $17 billion, that is a huge number, but revenue actually increased almost 30 percent to more than $10 billion in the second quarter for BP. We've been talking about a lot this earnings season. Revenue growth is really what a lot of investors want to see from any big company, and if it weren't for all these cleanup costs, BP would have actually posted a profit of about $5 billion, and that's even more than it made this time last year. Still, the main concern, beyond the bottom line, is the company's reputation. And while some may see Tony Hayward as kind of a sacrificial lamb, they're not getting rid of him entirely. They're just moving him to a very big, lucrative project in Russia. And replacing him is an obvious step to improve the company's image in the Gulf. About a quarter of the company's gas and oil production happens right here in the U.S., so a good relationship with Americans is crucial. But, you know, Tony, the fact that BP can afford to pay this off in just one quarter and absorb all these costs, it gives you an idea of just how huge this company is.
[Harris:] I think you make a great point there. All right. Carter Evans at the New York Stock Exchange for us. Carter, see you a little later this hour and next hour. Later this hour, a look at Tony Hayward, how his is the face of so much anger in people along the Gulf Coast. And Jacqui Jeras has the picture you must see massive hail in South Dakota. We're back in a moment. You're in the "CNN NEWSROOM".