still waiting to see if he s going to get reimbursed for his losses. hundreds of thousands of people here who rely on the gulf for their livelihood say they ve lost a lot of money. they ve turned to the gulf coast claims facility. bp provided $20 billion for the fund, and it s hardly been tapped a year later. some people haven t even seen a dime. some are accused of trying to cash in on the disaster. tom foreman is keeping them honest for us tonight. reporter: way down on grand isle where the fishermen and tourists were chased away by oil, sarah is waiting for them to come back to her restaurant and for a check to cover her lost income. we re not even 50% of what we used to have. reporter: like thousands, he s filed a claim for
dodging the bullet, passing the blame, and finger pointing in many directions. and that was pretty typical through this whole disaster. a lot of people here kind of asked that question, i mean, they feel like bp is running the show. are you in charge? there s no doubt the federal government is in charge and by law, but bp has to be the responsible party. they have to tell bp, i m your daddy, you re going to do what we say. you re a company that is greedy and may be guilty of criminal activity. they need to come down to new orleans, the president needs to come down to new orleans and do his job. we re tired of them talking like john wayne and acting like peewee herman. i ultimately take responsibility for solving this crisis. i m the president and the buck stops with me. so i give the people of this community and the entire gulf my word that we re going to hold ourselves accountable to do
sweeping and swift. well, yes and no. his new agency replaces the wildly discredited minerals management service that used to oversee drilling and the agency has issued new rules, but he s had to fight for funding from congress, and a comprehensive package of safety reforms that was passed by the house last year state bottled up in congress. meanwhile, his agency has approved 11 deep water drills and permits since february. 17 more are pending and new poll polling shows that 69% of americans want drilling. what nobody wants is another tragedy like the one that took 11 lives last year. that s what brings us here tonight. so there s clearly a lot left undone. a year after the disaster, there s much that may not get done any time soon. before we bring our guests in, who are passionate about the region and unique way of life and also what steps need to be taken to move forward, let s
north carolina. he was sitting in a truck talking on his cell phone as a tornado touched down. he wasn t injured but a local tv station asked him how he remain sod calm, he reportedly replied, soledad, i was a marine and i love jesus. i m glad to hear that. you would hate to visit with jesus before your time should be up because you got hit by a tornado. but that s me. isha, thank you. i m with you. there s lots more at the top of the hour. a year almost to the day since the gulf disaster began. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.
largest equity to explore deep waters of arctic, the first private oil company to swap shares with a state-controlled oil company. if dudley helped this would help bm move on from the gulf disaster, it hasn t. bp is now mired in a legal battle with russian partners in tnk bp who they say have a deal to be bp s sole russian partner. as this moves through the courts, the other plan is on hold and opens bp up to claims its moving from crisis to cries. one year on, it s not clear exactly how many barrels of oil spilled into the gulf of mexico and, thereof, how large a fine the u.s. government will impose on bp and its partners in that stricken well. jim bouldin, cnn, london. live reports from the gulf coast throughout the day here on cnn as residents mark the one-year anniversary of the bp spill. we ll also have complete