Cleanup Issue News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

Argument for holding back on cleaning this up before it's tested. >> on the disaster du jour, yes, they're saying that the stafford act covers oil spills in such a way the oil has to be determined the origin of the oil before they clean it up. >> neil: why? oil is oil. are they saying if it comes --f it's oil related to the spill it's a cleanup issue? >> obviously that was written in the event there would be a spill during a storm. this is not the situation. we have an existing spill and then a storm and we've said all along we're going to assume it's bp's clean it up and let them dna it after...

Craig fewgate the people at fema and the way it works, so our audience understands. typically you have to have a local declaration, a state declaration, a request of a federal declaration, the states declared a state of emergency so that's in place. >> right. >> mike: but fema would come and marshal the assets and resources and make sure there was a massive coordination of those. one of the president's excuses have been well, we're going to make bp pay for this. we're going to put bp-- but bp can't handle this and obviously aren't able specifically to deal with the cleanup issue. >> bp and the...

President would have enlisted craig fugate and the people at fema and the way it works, so our audience understands, you need a local, state declaration and request of a federal declaration and the states declared a state of emergency and that is en place an fema would come and marshall the assets and resources and would make sure there was a massive coordination of those. now, one of the president's excuses has been, we're going to make bp pay for that and -- but bp can't handle it and obviously aren't able, specifically, to deal with the cleanup issue. >> bp and the coast guard need to be fo...

Set up an escrow fund of $20 million the make sure that the company can cover future liabilities. >> what is going to matter most is to protect those who have been injured, and helping them is going to have to come before profit. our view is that it is the best way to make this company as profitable as possible is to show people and show them with some measure of confidence that they are getting on top of the cleanup issue. >> reporter: to be sure, bp has a lot of resources. the company's profits last year, $17 billion. but the stock price has been hammered. the company has lost $90 billion in...