Oil spill the worst environmental disaster - Obama

The massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico down south is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced, US President Barack Obama has said. "This oil spill is the worst environmental disaster America has ever faced. And unlike an earthquake or a hurricane, it is not a single event that does its damage in a matter of minutes or days," Obama said in his address to the nation. After becoming the President of US in January 2009, this was for the first time that Obama addressed the nation from his Oval Office. "The millions of gallons of oil that have spilled into the Gulf of Mexico are more like an epidemic, one that we will be fighting for months and even years," he said, hours after his return from his fourth visit of the region that are badly hit of oil spill. "But make no mistake: we will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long it takes.We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused.And we will do whatever necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy," he said.
Obama said his administration has directed BP to mobilise additional equipment and technology. In the coming days and weeks, these efforts should capture up to 90 per cent of the oil leaking out of the well. This is until the company finishes drilling a relief well later in the summer that is expected to stop the leak completely, he said. From the very beginning of this crisis, the federal government has been in charge of the largest environmental cleanup effort in the nation's history - an effort led by Admiral Thad Allen, who has almost forty years of experience responding to disasters.