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You don't mess around with mother nature. if she says you are not going to fly that day, you don't push it, you don't fly. >> greta: you worked on the north slope how long? >> from '89 to last september. >> greta: people now about the gulf of mexico and prudhoe bay. different situation in terms of [ inaudible ] >> we have shallow wart we are drilling in offshore in alaska. arctic conditions, different from the gulf and different technology is needed. >> the arctic environment compared to the gulf environment, [ inaudible ] >> greta: what about -- we've seen the horrible catastrophe in the gulf...

About their operations and what they found in their investigation. >> we found a pattern where every time they had a decision to make they decided to cut corners, to do things faster than otherwise should have been done, to do it less expensively and the consequence of this is one industry expert told us was, horribly negligent. >> and if bp can't survive in this free market, that's the way it goes. i mean, it's very clear that they were operating in the free market, doing exactly what they wanted to do, trying to make a dollar and now we're going to be paying the price with the environment an...

The shots, and almost in words of maybe a dictator, that this is the way we're going to do it? and when i hear reported today by chuck todd here on msnbc that the obama administration is negotiating with bp over a third independent party as to whether they'll oversee the claims process, it just makes me think that bp is calling the shots and not the american people. what do you think? >> well, i think the president and his administration fully understand that this is a moment where the american people want real strength in dealing with not just bp, but in dealing with the challenge of the oil ...

Never be the same. how is i going to be put in better shape than it was before? >> well, andrea, it's going to take years of commitment to do that, but understand that even if this accident weren't happening, the environment in and around the gulf coast gets worse day by day. the marshlands contract. we lose wetlands each and every day. what we have to do is look towards building an environment and an environment in the gulf not the way it was the day this rig exploded or even before hurricane katrina, but before that. for instance, one of the plans to stop the oil in this has been to rebuild ...

From representative waxman's letter, brazenly risking the lives and the environment of this country to make an extra buck and he needs to lay out a new plan to wean us off our addiction to oil and to do so in a way that is common sense. it's not left-right. it's what most industrialized, civilized nations are doing now, investing in alternatives and efficiency in technologies. so he has a real opportunity to do that and to redefine his leadership and to do so not in an angry way. i find all this talk silly. it's what he does. what he does in this period that is so critical. >> you know, katrin...