Obama vows to make BP pay for reckless oil spill

Unleashing yet another attack on BP, President Obama promised to hold the British based oil company to account for the disaster off the Gulf of Mexico.

Barack Obama - Celebrity News - Marie Claire
Barack Obama - Celebrity News - Marie Claire
(Image credit: Rex Features)

Unleashing yet another attack on BP, President Obama promised to hold the British based oil company to account for the disaster off the Gulf of Mexico.

As the beaches of Mexico continue to be flooded with between 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of oil every day, President Obama confirms his decision to hold BP to account.

Making his first ever speech directly from the Oval Office, Obama described the company's actions as ‘reckless'.

‘We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused, and we will do whatever is necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy,' he said.

He will be meeting BP's chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg later today and will inform him that he must 'set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company's recklessness.'

However, he also accepted that America's demand for oil was at least in part to blame.

‘We consume more than 20 per cent of the world's oil, but have less than two per cent of the world's oil reserves.

‘And that's part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean - because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.'

It is anticipated that the spill will take several months or even years to fully recover from.

'We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.'

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