PART ONE… http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/01/gulf.oil.spill/index.html?hpt=T1&iref=BN1 U.S. begins criminal investigation into oil spill By the CNN Wire Staff June 1, 2010 4:24 p.m. EDT (CNN) — U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Tuesday that the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into the massive oil spill spreading through the Gulf of Mexico. Holder said the investigation would be comprehensive and aggressive. He promised that the federal officials will prosecute anyone who broke the law. Holder, who made the announcement during a visit to the Gulf, called early signs of the spill heartbreaking and tragic. The attorney general was in the Gulf to survey the BP oil spill and meet with state attorneys general and federal prosecutors from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, according to the Justice Department. In May, a group of senators — including Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California — sent Holder a letter expressing concerns “about the truthfulness and accuracy of statements submitted by BP to the government in its initial exploration plan for the site,” and asking Holder to investigate possible criminal and civil wrongdoing. In a reply to that letter last week, a Justice Department official did not say whether a criminal investigation had begun. “The Department of Justice will take all necessary and appropriate steps to ensure that those responsible for this tragic series of events are held fully accountable,” Assistant Attorney General Ronald Welch wrote. Holder said in May that the Justice Department would “ensure that BP is held liable.” BP began its latest attempt to curtail the flow of oil from an underwater well in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday, using robot submarines to cut into a damaged pipe a mile down. The operation carries the risk that the flow of crude from the ruptured well, already the largest oil spill in U.S. history, will increase. But if successful, the company says it will be able to catch most of that oil with a cap it plans to place over the severed lower marine riser pipe. “Even with an increased flow rate, this cap will be able to handle this,” BP Managing Director Bob Dudley told CNN's “American Morning.” While the engineering has never been attempted at a depth of 5,000 feet, Dudley said Tuesday the latest attempt is “more straightforward” than previous, unsuccessful efforts. A mechanical claw began squeezing the heavy riser pipe late Tuesday morning, the first step in a series of planned cuts. After that, a diamond-cut saw will be used to make a “clean cut,” preparing the way for the custom-made cap to be fitted over the package. Tar balls and puddles of oil from the oil spill reached the shores of Alabama's Dauphin Island on Tuesday, residents and researchers involved in cleanup efforts reported. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said authorities were investigating reports that the outer sheen of oil was reaching coastal waters off Mississippi and Alabama earlier Tuesday, but those reports had not been confirmed when he spoke to reporters in New Orleans, Louisiana. The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration had warned earlier this week that the spreading slick was heading toward the Alabama and Mississippi coasts. Tar balls associated with the Gulf spill had hit Dauphin Island, about 35 miles south of Mobile, in early May. Oil has been gushing from the undersea well since April 20 when the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded and later sank. Government estimates are that up to 19,000 barrels (798,000 gallons) of oil a day are flowing into the Gulf of Mexico. Dudley said that could increase by up to 20 percent — nearly 160,000 gallons — when the pipe is cut, but he said the company has learned lessons from its earlier attempts that it is applying to the new process. Warm water and methanol will be pumped into the cap to limit the growth of gas hydrate crystals that thwarted an earlier attempt to cap the spill, he said. And a second line is planned to draw more oil off the well's blowout preventer, a critical piece of safety equipment that has so far failed to shut down the well, using equipment involved in last week's failed “top kill” operation. BP's handling of the spill and its statements regarding the status of operations have been sharply criticized by some in recent weeks. The Obama administration announced Tuesday that it would no longer hold joint news briefings with the company and that Allen, its point man on the spill, will now become the face of the government's response effort. Allen told reporters in New Orleans, Louisiana, that his job is to speak “very frankly with the American public.” “I think we need to be communicating with the American people through my voice as the national incident commander,” he said. Rear Adm. Mary Landry, who has been the Coast Guard's on-scene coordinator for five weeks, will be returning to her duties as chief of the service's New Orleans district office. Coast Guard Commandant Robert Papp said the plan always has been for Landry to resume that role in preparation for the Atlantic hurricane season, which began Tuesday. Allen praised Landry's work leading “an anomalous and unprecedented response” to the spill, but said Landry now needs to focus “on the larger array of threats” to her district, which includes the U.S. Southeast and Midwest. CONTINUED… added by: EthicalVegan
