C-Span now leaving committee, about ready to go to the oval office…

Here's President Obama:

Good evening.  As we speak our nation faces a multitude of challenges.. our top priority is to recover from the recession at home…abroad men and women in uniform are fighting Al Qaeda..

On April 20….oil began spewing into the water…there's never been a leak this size and this depth… stopping has tested the limits of human technology….for this reason I've assembled a team of experts from academia and elsewhere…  in the coming weeks and days these efforts should stop 90% of the oil coming from the well…the worst environmental disaster the world has ever faced…we'll be fighting this for months and even years…we will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long as it takes…we will make BP pay for whatever damage it has caused and we will help the people affected…

Tonight I will lay out our plan to deal with the gulf and to make sure it doesn't happen again.

First, the clean-up:  We now have nearly 30,000 personnel working across 3 states to clean up and contain the oil…I've authorized over 17,000 national guardsmen to help keep the oil from coming to shore, clean the beaches, etc…because of our efforts millions of gallons of oil have been removed from the water…we've approved the construction of new barrier islands to stop the oil before it hits coastlines…

A  mobilization of this speed and magnitude will never be perfect…we must recognize that despite our best efforts, oil has already caused damage to our coastline and wildlife, and no matter what our response is, there will be more damage before it is done and that is why we are focusing on reparation…

[He's talking about people losing their livelihoods…] …I refuse to let that happen…tomorrow I will inform the head of BP that they will pay out all legitimate claims…independent 3rd party administered…

Short term v. long term plan to restore the unique beauty and bounty of the region…we must make a commitment to the gulf coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment… are developing a long term gulf coast restoration as soon as possible.  BP will pay for the impact the spill has had on the region.

Steps to make sure a disaster doesn't happen again…  proposed no new drilling until it is proven that it is absolutely safe.  Americans deserve to know why this happened.  Have established a commission; have issued a 6 month moratorium on deep water drilling…  we need to know the facts before we allow deep water drilling to continue.  I expect the commission to do their work thoroughly and impartially.

Talking about Ken Salazar, first act was to clean up corruption at the Minerals Management Agency.  We are bringing in new leadership to this agency….building an organization that acts as oil industry's watchdog. 

We need better safety standards and regulation….oil is a finite resource…  we consume more than 20% of the world's oil but have only 2% of the reserves…  for decades we've failed to act with the sense of urgency this requires…time and again it has been blocked by lack of political courage…

Each day we send nearly $1 billion of our wealth to other countries for oil.  We cannot consign our children to this future..  The tragedy unfolding on our coast is a painful reminder that now is the moment for this generation to embark on a national mission to seize control of our own destiny…

Over the last year and a half we've already taken steps to jump start this effort…wind turbines, clean energy technologies…each of us has a part to play…as we recover from recession, clean energy has potential to create new jobs…only if we rally together and act as one nation…

We can't afford not to change how we produce and use energy…long term costs to our security and our environment are far greater.  Will not accept inaction.  Will not accept that this challenge is too big or difficult to meet.  Same thing was said about our ability to build planes in WWII, putting a man on the moon.  What has defined us as a nation is the capacity to shape our destiny, our determination to fight for the America we want for our children.  We may not know how we'll get there, but we know we will.  It is our faith as a people that sustains us as a people.

Oil spill is not the last crisis America will face… what has always seen us through is our strength, our resilience and our unyielding faith that something better awaits if we summon the courage to reach for it…

Thank you.  God bless you.  And God bless the United States of America.