Could Oil Spill Have Been Avoided?; BP Asked to Release Video of Spill
ALI VELSHI, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Ali Velshi and I'm going to be with you for the next two hours today and every day - ever weekday, taking all of these important issues that we've been covering and taking them a step further. I'm going to try and give you a level of detail that will help you put your world into context. Let's get started on this. Here's what I've got on the rundown. New evidence is pointing to what may have caused that disastrous oil rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico. We've got the very latest for you. Plus, we're going to show you pictures of the oil leak you definitely haven't seen before. Plus, he's healthy; he's active. He's 41 years old. So how did Beau Biden suffer a stroke? Dr. Sanjay Gupta says a case like this is not unique. And how often have you looked at your cell-phone bill and said, "Was I calling Mars?" If you've ever been shocked by how high your cell-phone bill is, the government wants to ease your pain and it wants to hear from you. But let's start off with the big story today, and that is that oil spill. Let me tell you a little bit about what's going on right now. It's the second day of a hearing in Washington of the House Energy Committee. They are interviewing or hearing testimony from four people involved in the company's -- four of the companies involved in this oil spill. Now, the first one is BP. You've heard about them. They were the company that was leasing the oil rig. Right? That's the one on top. Then you've got Transocean. Take a look at that. That's the top one on the list. Transocean actually owned that rig that they were leasing to BP. By the bottom, you can see Halliburton. Halliburton was involved in the structure that was right around the seafloor, right around the well. And the fourth company -- this is one you hadn't heard from yet. This is a company called Cameron, and they made what's called the blowout preventer. Now, we understand that the blowout preventer may have been at the root of the explosion that caused the oil rig to explode and sink and caused this rupture in the ocean. But here's something new. Henry Waxman, the congressman, he's the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee -- said today that they have evidence that Cameron knew about a problem with the blowout preventer the day before the accident happened. Listen to this.</s>REP. HENRY WAXMAN (D-CA), CHAIRMAN, HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE: In the test, the pressures measured at any point from the drill rig to the blowout preventer should be the same in all three lines. But what the test showed was that the pressures in the drill pipe were significantly higher. Mr. Dupree explained that it could signal that an influx of gas was causing pressure to mount inside the well board.</s>VELSHI: All right. So this is now a new area of focus that we are going to be focusing on to try and figure out whether something was known about the pressure. Remember that when you drill for oil in the ground, a great deal of pressure sends this out, and the blowout -- blowout preventer is part of what regulates that pressure and is able to close valves in the event that something goes wrong. We'll be looking into that line of questioning. But meanwhile, Ed Lavandera joins us now from Miami. He's been following the developments on the efforts to try and contain this oil spill that keep on going and keep on not succeeding -- Ed.</s>ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ali, you know the battle to kind of get that oil leak under control is just as intense as the public relations battle that BP is waging here onshore. You know, we did a story yesterday, essentially questioning why BP has not released extensive video of the actual oil leak. It's now more than three weeks after this explosion, and we still have not seen exactly what we're dealing with at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico. This is an issue that is now starting to gain some traction as senators are calling into question BP's efforts. And critics are saying their efforts to control the message here and control the images emanating from this story. We did that yesterday, late yesterday, buried on BP.com. If you go to the Web site there and you search through some of the pictures, you have to scroll down to the bottom of where they -- a little area they call "Response with Images." And way down there at the bottom you see these two pictures. These are the clearest images we've seen so far of the actual oil leak at 5,000 feet underwater there in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Louisiana. Of course, these are not video images. These are still pictures. And according to the information there on the picture, this is the main oil leak site that we're seeing. It was -- the picture was taken at 12:40 yesterday afternoon. There is still a great deal of pressure, though, on British Petroleum to release the pictures, the video images. We're told by government sources that these robotic cameras that they have underwater there have recorded extensive, extensive hours of video images of exactly what we're dealing with. Environmentalists and many scientists we've spoken with say that, essentially, what BP is trying to do is to control the images, control the information about what we're dealing with here. And a lot of critics say that they would like to see these video images, that it would help independent scientists and environmentalists get a sense of what we're going through. I think we have sound from Senator Barbara Boxer yesterday, questioning one of the BP execs on Capitol Hill yesterday about this very issue.</s>SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: Mr. McKay, we have heard from the media that there is a lot of BP video of this spill, and there have been requests to see it, to look at the spill volume, because it seems we can't get a true picture but we've heard 4 million gallons. Is that who you estimate we've spilled so far?</s>LAMAR MCKAY, CHAIRMAN, BP AMERICA: I think the estimate is 5,000 barrels a day for the last 20 days. So if that, doing the math, if that's right, 42 gallons per barrel. So you'd have to do the math. But as far as videos, there are some videos and pictures that are on the united -- Unified Area Command site, and I believe they're actually trying to add to that in terms of...</s>BOXER: Our understanding is there's far more than has been released. Would you get back to this committee? We would be interesting in viewing those and making those public. Will you get back to us on how many of the videos have still not been shown to the public?</s>MCKAY: How many of...</s>BOXER: Will you get back to us on how much footage there has not -- that has not been shown to the public?</s>MCKAY: OK.</s>BOXER: And make that available to us.</s>BOXER: Yes. Everything goes through Unified Area Command, yes.</s>LAVANDERA: So Ali, clearly this pressure is starting to mount. BP has told us that their No. 1 priority is stopping the leak here and that they do feel that they have been extremely open throughout all of this process dealing with this oil spill disaster. So we've been told by a BP spokesman earlier today that there is a chance that this video be released at some point today, although we've got to be honest here.</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>LAVANDERA: We've been asking for this video for almost three weeks now. And we've been told "we'll look into it" repeatedly. So...</s>VELSHI: He just said something about it going...</s>LAVANDERA: ... I'll kind of believe that when I see it.</s>VELSHI: ... he said something about it going through Unified Command. And this is the -- this is the Coast Guard; this is BP. They're going to do this. He was talking about 5,000 gallons -- 5,000 barrels a day of leakage for 20 days, which would be 100,000 barrels times 42. So it's 4.2 million gallons is where we would have been as of yesterday if that estimate is correct.</s>LAVANDERA: Right. Working the math on that, as well. But the bigger point here, too, is why critics have been intense about getting this video and looking at it. They really want to use it as a marker to get a sense of where we stand...</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>LAVANDERA: ... where we are in battling this disaster. They say if they had been able to see this two weeks ago they'd have be able to get a chance to say, "All right. What we're doing is either getting better, it's getting worse." It's not getting better. This is really the first kind of clear picture, albeit a still picture of what the situation we're dealing with is.</s>VELSHI: Yes, but surprisingly clear for that far under the water. The reality is if we have images you can start to the least see, is it more today than it was yesterday? Is it getting worse? Good point, Ed. Stay on that for us. And if we do get more information or that video, we'll put you right back on here talking about it. We're all eager to see that. Ed Lavandera following the story for us very closely, as well as other members of our team. I want to bring in a few people who are going to know a little bit more about this than just we journalists do. An engineering professor, Peter Scarlatos is the chairman of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at Florida Atlantic University. He's joining me from Miami. And on the phone, Brent Clanton is the energy reporter for the "Houston Chronicle." He's in Louisiana right now. Brent, let's start with you. What are you hearing about -- about the efforts right now and where they might actually be going?</s>BRENT CLANTON, ENERGY REPORTER, "HOUSTON CHRONICLE" (via phone): Well, I'm actually listening to some public hearings today about the federal investigation that are really probing the response by the Coast Guard in the earliest hours of this accident. And also taking a step back from that and looking at deep within the U.S. Minerals Management Service, which is part of the Interior Department that regulates the offshore oil and gas industry. Really looking at their permitting process and if there may have been weaknesses in their permitting process that may have contributing to this factor.</s>VELSHI: And they just changed -- they just announced, the Department of the Interior, that they're changing that whole system around, that it's not just going to be one organization, one government agency that licenses and collects revenues for these offshore oil leases. But they're going to split that into one that does the licensing and revenue and one that inspects and makes sure that everything is actually working the way it's supposed to be from a safety perspective.</s>CLANTON: Correct. And there's been those criticisms about the Minerals Management Service for years now, that they are too close to the oil industry and that they don't, you know, don't -- don't have the adequate oversight that's needed there. In these hearings here in New Orleans, you know, we're hearing about, you know, some weakness, a little bit, along the way in that system of approving permits. Even the one that was approved for this BP well off the coast of Louisiana, that there were some requirements in there about the integrity of this blowout preventer that's at the center of this whole discussion right now.</s>VELSHI: Yes.</s>CLANTON: And whether those were included. And it looks like they were not.</s>VELSHI: Professor Scarlatos, let me bring this over to you. And now we've got sort of two issues that those of us who are not engineers need to try and understand. One is word that this blowout preventer may have been faulty before -- the day before the explosion. And No. 2, they're -- they're trying something today called a top hat to try and contain this oil spill. These are -- blowout preventer and top hat are both expressions most of our viewers are not altogether familiar with. What can you tell us about -- about how you see this working?</s>PETER SCARLATOS, FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY: Can you please repeat the first question? I heard it, and -- I don't think it's excusable that this explosion and accident happened. I believe it could have been prevented. But now it's too late, and we need to look forward, you know, on how we can take care of the spill. The second, I couldn't hear your question. Can you please repeat it?</s>VELSHI: Tell me about -- do you know about this thing that BP is going to deploy that's called a top hat, that they're trying to contain the spill with at this point?</s>SCARLATOS: OK. I believe it's the same concept as before, but at a much smaller scale, so they hope that it will be much easier for them to fit it over the well.</s>VELSHI: Is it your view that we know enough about this, or are we just trying things out now because we don't actually know how to contain this spill? Is it your view that we can actually fix this properly?</s>SCARLATOS: We may. We don't -- I don't believe, you know, that anyone knows beforehand whether anything will work. We never have an experience with such deep well. It's 5,000 feet below the ocean surface -- surface, so we don't know whether it will work or not.</s>VELSHI: The last thing I want to ask you about is about this blowout preventer. We heard testimony today that the company that -- that was responsible for the blowout preventer may have tested it the day before the explosion and found there to be a problem. What is a blowout preventer supposed to do?</s>SCARLATOS: If -- if the pressure increases to a level which is dangerous and may cause damage to the well ring, it shuts it off. It's like a security valve.</s>VELSHI: All right. Professor, thank you for bringing us up to speed on this. Professor Peter Scarlatos is the chairman of the Department of Civil, Environmental and Geomatic Engineering at Florida Atlantic University. Brent Clanton is an energy reporter with the "Houston Chronicle," joining us from Kenner, Louisiana. Now, this energy story, this -- this explosion has prompted a number of people in Congress to get the energy bill back on track. It's sort of got a different focus. It's dealing with offshore oil, but it's really going after greenhouse gas emissions, CO2 emissions. Lawmakers are actually getting set to reveal it in just a few minutes. We're going to tell you what it's dealing with and how it's going to affect you when we come back.