BARACK Obama has labelled the worst environmental disaster in US history "an epidemic" that would be fought for years.
The US President used his first speech from the Oval Office yesterday to reaffirm he is in charge of the clean-up effort for the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, The Australian reported.
Fresh from his fourth visit to coastal states facing damage from the spill, Mr Obama laid out what he called a "battle plan" for tackling the disaster.
He said his commitment went beyond the "crisis of the moment" to involve long-term restoration.
He would not stop, he said, until BP had paid for the damage it had caused.
BP has agreed not to pay dividends on its shares and instead set aside $20 billion US (about $23 billion) to compensate victims of the environmental disaster.
Mr Obama also tried to link the disaster to a need for finding an alternative to fossil fuels, saying the days of cheap and easily affordable oil were numbered.
While short on detail about proposed legislation or a price for carbon, he said: "The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean-energy future is now."
After public criticism that he has not been fully engaged with the oil disaster, the President's address was an attempt to show he was acting decisively.
He accused BP of "recklessness" for causing harm and pledged to create an independently run compensation fund in which the company would be required to put potentially billions of dollars to pay affected businesses and workers.
The President meets BP's chairman and other executives today to press for full co-operation.
Mr Obama's speech came as the US government revised estimates of oil spewing into the gulf significantly upwards to between 5.5 million and 9.5 million litres a day.
Mr Obama predicted yesterday that up to 90 per cent of oil leaking out of the well would be captured "in the coming weeks and days", although he admitted the gush could not be stopped until the company finished drilling a relief well later in the US summer.
The spill has become a political debacle for Mr Obama as a majority of voters - 53 per cent according to some polls - disapprove of his handling of the crisis.
While Mr Obama does not face re-election until 2012, his Democratic Party is nervous that a voter backlash against the White House could affect its prospects in November's mid-term congressional elections.
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