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[al:voa]
[ti:IN THE NEWS - Oil Spill in US Gulf: The Week's Developments ]
[by:www.skyel.net]
[re:www.skyel.net]
[00:03.23] This is IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
[00:08.03] Attention turned to Washington this week over the continuing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
[00:15.53] On Thursday, the chief executive officer of BP faced hours of intense questioning at a House of Representatives hearing.
[00:25.68] Tony Hayward apologized for the spill.
[00:29.18] But he said it was too early to say what caused the April twentieth explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.
[00:39.14] Eleven workers died.
[00:41.43] He said BP expects to complete two relief wells in August to stop the leak from a damaged well.
[00:50.93] But he would not answer questions about the design of the leaking well.
[00:57.00] Lawmakers said the company has a record of putting profits ahead of safety.
[01:03.46] But Republican Representative Joe Barton of Texas apologized to Tony Hayward.
[01:10.10] He said he was sorry for what he saw as political pressure by President Obama to force BP to set up a claims fund for victims.
[01:22.35] He called it a "tragedy" and a "twenty billion dollar shakedown" of a private company.
[01:30.08] The congressman later apologized for his apology.
[01:35.21] On Wednesday, BP officials came to the White House for what many people expected would be a twenty minute meeting.
[01:44.28] They came out four hours later after talks with the president and other officials.
[01:51.78] BP agreed to put twenty billion dollars over the next three years into an independent fund to pay claims and damages.
[02:04.01] President Obama said it was not a limit on what the company might have to pay.
[02:10.96] BP has already spent more than a billion dollars on the clean-up operation.
[02:17.16] APA special rig capturing some of the oil leaking into the Gulf of Mexico BP will also suspend dividend payments to shareholders temporarily.
[02:25.12] About forty percent of BP shareholders are in Britain, but almost as many are in the United States.
[02:35.40] And BP has agreed to establish a one hundred million dollar fund to pay unemployed oil rig workers.
[02:46.00] The money is for those affected by a six-month suspension of deepwater drilling.
[02:53.63] President Obama gave his first speech from the Oval Office Tuesday night to discuss the oil spill.
[03:02.34] He called it "the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced.
[03:09.67]" Many Gulf residents have criticized the president's performance in the crisis.
[03:16.94] Many people who work in fishing part of the year also depend on well-paid jobs in offshore energy.
[03:27.50] The six-month ban on deepwater drilling is meant for safety.
[03:33.25] But in Louisiana alone, the oil and gas industry produces seventy billion dollars each year.
[03:43.10] Members of Congress from Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi are appealing to the administration to shorten the six-month moratorium.
[03:55.56] But some environmental groups say it should be made permanent to end the nation's dependence on oil.
[04:05.87] This week, government scientists raised their estimate of the leak to between thirty-five and sixty thousand barrels of oil each day.
[04:17.06] BP has increased the amount of oil captured.
[04:22.87] Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen said Friday that twenty-five thousand barrels were captured in the past twenty-four hours.
[04:33.52] Also, BP said it was getting closer to the damaged well.
[04:39.63] And BP's chairman told Sky News that Tony Hayward will no longer be supervising the daily operations in the Gulf of Mexico.
[04:51.51] And that's IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English.
[04:56.32] I'm Steve Ember. 
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