Obama will demand BP establish escrow account to handle oil spill claims

President Obama will demand that BP establish an escrow account to compensate for Gulf Coast oil spill claims when he meets with company executives on Wednesday, White House officials said Sunday.

Obama is expected to announce the details of the escrow account request during an address to the nation Tuesday night, which he will make upon returning to the White House after a two-day trip to the region, senior adviser David Axelrod said.

“We want to make sure that money is escrowed for the legitimate claims,” Axelrod said on NBC’s Meet the Press. The president’s discussion with BP executives will focus on the amount of money that should be set aside in the account, an amount Axelrod said should be “substantial.”

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government’s top point man on the oil spill response, said Sunday that the administration may appoint a third party official to oversee the fund and ensure payments are made quickly.

“We’ve been very concerned about the claims process,” Allen said on CBS’s Face the Nation. “This is not a core function of an oil producing company.”

BP spokeswoman Anne Kolton said “We are engaged in ongoing discussions about the best way forward. We look forward to meeting with the administration later this week to affirm our commitment to fulfill our obligations in dealing with the tremendous impact of this tragic incident.”

Gulf Coast state governors seemed supportive of the plan, so long as it ensured an easy claims process.

“It’s BP’s responsibility to pay for all of this. And the mechanism for doing it needs to be one that’s friendly to the claimant,” Gov. Haley Barbour (R-Miss.) told CBS’s Face the Nation.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley (R) said the fund should compensate everyone impacted.

“I don’t think there is a dividing line. I don’t think you can say that one group is going to get it and another one doesn’t,” Riley said on CNN’s State of the Union.

Those questions of eligibility may prove most daunting for officials overseeing the account, said Carl W. Tobias, an environmental law expert at the University of Richmond.

“There will be a lot of details, like what kind of proof do you have to have?” Tobias said. “Who’s the burden of proof on? What’s the cause and effect? Will they take evidence? Will you have to have receipts?”

Obama is making his fourth trip to the Gulf on Monday, visiting Florida, Mississippi and Alabama and, for the first time since the oil rig exploded and sank, making it an overnight trip. Riley said he intends to share his concerns with the coordinated public-private spill response with Obama.

“It’s a committee that essentially consists of all of the different federal agencies sitting down here, and as a committee, each one has a veto over whatever policies we have,” Riley said. “You can’t continue to do that. We’re going to have to have one person who makes the call on what we do and where.”

Asked about a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll showing public dissatisfaction with the federal response to the oil spill, now nearly two months old, Axelrod said it cannot be compared to a single-moment event such as a hurricane. “This is an ongoing crisis, much like an epidemic,” he said.

Lawmakers on Sunday also asked Allen to ensure that the federal government maintains control of the damaged blowout preventer from the moment it is lifted from the damaged oil well and transported to shore for further federal investigation.

“Such a procedure is critical to ensuring a proper, thorough, and untainted forensic analysis of the equipment,” House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rep. Nick J. Rahall (D-W. Va.) said in a letter to Allen. The government has subpoenaed the blowout preventer’s owner, Transocean, instructing the company to keep it intact for ongoing investigations.