Robots succeed, cut well pipe; oil gushes into Gulf

Robots succeed, cut well pipe; oil gushes into Gulf http://www.cnn.com/2010/US/06/01/gulf.oil.spill/index.html By the CNN Wire Staff June 1, 2010 10:18 p.m. EDT BP's handling of the spill has been sharply criticized by members of Congress, officials in the Gulf states and the Obama administration, which announced Tuesday that a criminal investigation of the spill was under way. In addition, federal officials will no longer hold joint news briefings with the company, the administration announced. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, the government's point man on the spill, will now become the face of the response effort. Allen told reporters in New Orleans, Louisiana, that his job is to speak "very frankly with the American public." Rear Adm. Mary Landry, who has been the Coast Guard's on-scene coordinator for five weeks, will be returning to her duties as chief of the service's New Orleans district office. Allen praised Landry's work leading "an anomalous and unprecedented response" to the spill, but said Landry now needs to focus "on the larger array of threats" to her district -- including this summer's Atlantic hurricane season, which began Tuesday. In Louisiana, Plaquemines Parish President Billy Nungesser warned that a hurricane in the area could drive more oil ashore. "We don't want to scare anybody, but we need to be realistic about it," Nungesser said. "If a storm does top out levees, it will probably bring oil with it." He said residents who evacuate ahead of a hurricane might return "not to a flooded home, but to a home that is completely contaminated with this oil." Oil spill darkens hurricane fears Tuesday also marked the start of the recreational fishing season for red snapper, a big draw for sport anglers in the region. But the season opened with a new blow to the region's fisheries industry as the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration extended its restrictions on fishing to almost a third of the Gulf. The closures extend southward to a point about 240 miles west of the tip of Florida and eastward to federal waters off the Alabama-Florida state line. The state of Mississippi announced a closure of some of its inland waterways to fishing after oil was found in the area. The closed area includes areas east of 88 degrees, 40 minutes west longitude, and south of the CSX Railroad, but not including Graveline Bayou and its tributaries. After a meeting with state attorneys general and federal prosecutors from Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder told reporters that the Justice Department was looking at possible criminal violations in connection with the spill. Justice Department launches investigation "If we find evidence of illegal behavior, we will be forceful in our response," Holder said. "We have already instructed all relevant parties to preserve any documents that may shed light on the facts surrounding this disaster." In a statement issued in response to Holder's announcement, BP said it would cooperate with any inquiry, "just as we are doing in response to the other inquires that are already ongoing." Suttles told CNN that there have been "very few differences" between company and federal officials working to cut off the spill. "This is a team that's really all aligned on the same goals and has been since the beginning," he said. "The government clearly presses us very hard to make sure we're responding as quick as we can. We're moving things forward, we're applying all the resources that we need to apply. But I would stress at the working level, those differences are really quite small." BP, rig owner Transocean Ltd. and oilfield services company Halliburton have blamed each other for the disaster. But BP, as the well's owner, is responsible for the costs of the cleanup under federal law, and Suttles said the company has now spent more than $1 billion to clean up the oil. BP stock has taken a beating on Wall Street , plunging on Tuesday after the failure of last week's "top kill" attempt to close the well. The company's stock value is down more than a third since the spill began. CNN's David Mattingly, Tracy Sabo, Patrick Oppmann, Scott Bronstein and Aaron Cooper cont