Visits relatives of 11 men who died on BP oil rig explosion
The people Whitehouse spokesman Robert Gibbs has called “the very first victims of what is a very long and sad tragedy,” will meet with President Obama in Washington Thursday. The families of the 11 men who died when the BP-leased Deepwater Horizon rig exploded on April 20th say they’ve felt forgotten throughout the crisis, but Keith Jones, father of one of the men who died, says he supports the government action. The meeting comes as stocks in BP rise $3, more than 10 per cent, after a sharp fall the day before. It’s believed that the 15.8 per cent sell-off of shares in the company Wednesday was over fears that the cleanup would leave BP dead in the water. However, the oil giant says it has “significant capacity and flexibility” to deal with the crisis, and that it knows no reason why it’s shares should fall.