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Axelrod: BP not a 'partner'; escrow fund considered to handle oil spill claims
President Barack Obama will make a White House address to the nation on Tuesday about the Gulf Coast oil spill as the administration increases pressure on BP to pay for the mounting costs.
David Axelrod, senior White House adviser, said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the oil spill is at an "inflection point," and that the president wants to lay out the government's next steps.
Obama's address will come on the eve of a White House meeting with senior BP executives, including BP Board Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg and CEO Tony Hayward, in which the president will call on BP to set up an independent escrow account to deal with claims from businesses hurt by the spill.
"We want to make sure that money is independently administered so there won't be slow walk on these claims," Axelrod said.
The administration is locked in an awkward relationship with the multinational oil giant as the government prepares for months of work to stop the gusher and clean up the environmental damage.
"It's not a matter of trust. We have to verify what they're doing," Axelrod said. "I don't consider them a partner. They're not social friends. I'm not looking to make judgments about their soul."
Axelrod refused to say whether the administration trusts BP CEO Tony Hayward.
Republicans continue to criticize the administration for being slow to respond to the crisis, which started in late April with an explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. Millions of barrels of oil and gas have gushed into the gulf and are washing ashore in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
"We're not interested in undermining the integrity of their company," Axelrod said. "We believe BP has the resources to meet the claims."
Coast Guard commander Thad Allen, who is leading the incident response team, said on CBS' "Face the Nation" that the third-party claim administration fund proposal has risen out of concerns over the claims process.
"This is not a core function of an oil-producing company," Allen said. “It is not clear to us that there is the right transparency involved concerning the data, how long it takes to pay a claim.
“One of the things that we are probably going to be talking about is an independent third party that could administer a fund and make sure it happens quicker,” he added.
Allen was asked whether it will be the responsibility of BP to pay oil workers idled by the moratorium on deepwater drilling.
“Those are policy discussions that are going on inside the administration right now," he said. "I am not sure there is any resolution on that."
House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) said on CNN's "State of the Union" that the escrow fund was a good idea, but also wanted to explore diverting BP stock dividends to victims of the oil spill.
"The fact of the matter is, I do not believe that BP can continue to pay big stock dividends, can continue to get these -- pay for these full-page ads, running a public relations campaign while so many families, so many communities are being ruined," he said.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour (R) on Sunday questioned Obama’s plan to give a White House speech on the BP oil spill Tuesday night ahead of Obama’s meeting with top BP executives the following day.
“That is a little surprising to me,” Barbour said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Normally if I were, as governor, trying to make sure somebody does something, I would meet with them before I went on television.”
“But it is up to the president, not up to me,” he added.
