From CNN: As oil continued gushing into the Gulf of Mexico from BP’s ruptured deepwater well Friday, the political firestorm sparked by the environmental disaster showed no signs of slowing.

WASHINGTON — BP will set aside $20 billion to pay the victims of the massive oil spill in the Gulf, senior administration officials said Wednesday, a move made under pressure by the White House as the company copes with causing the worst environmental disaster in U.S. history.

HOUSTON — New figures for the blown-out well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico show the amount of oil spewing may have been up to twice as much as previously thought, according to scientists consulting with the federal government.

EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. — Communities up and down the East Coast are preparing for the “what if?”

From the NY Times: Although the Coast Guard had trained for the possibility of cleaning up a disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, it had never anticipated that oil would spread across such a broad area and break up into hundreds of thousands of patches as the current spill has done, the commander […]

From MSNBC: NEW ORLEANS – The cost of BP’s response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has reached about $1.25 billion, the company said Monday.

METAIRIE, La. — BP used giant shears to slice off a pipe Thursday in the company’s latest bid to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil, but the cut was irregular and placing a cap over the gusher will now be more challenging, Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said.

PENSACOLA, Florida — BP’s top executive acknowledged Thursday the global oil giant was unprepared to fight a catastrophic deepwater oil spill as engineers were forced yet again to reconfigure plans for executing their latest gambit to control the blown-out oil well in the Gulf of Mexico.

From the Huffington Post: By Jesse Jackson The BP oil disaster in the Gulf Coast is now the most massive spill in world history. The negative impact of oil refining operations is being felt not just along the Gulf Coast, but right next door in Whiting, Indiana as well.

PORT FOURCHON, La. — The BP oil slick drifted within striking distance of the Florida Panhandle’s white sand beaches for the first time, raising the stakes another notch as submersible robots made another risky attempt to control the underwater Gulf of Mexico gusher.

PORT FOURCHON, Louisiana— With the ambitious “top kill” having failed to stop a massive oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico over the weekend and a relief well at least two months away, BP was ramping up its efforts to clean up the Louisiana coast.

COVINGTON, Louisiana — A risky procedure is failing to stop the oil spewing into the Gulf of Mexico, and BP said Saturday it is considering scrapping it in favor of yet another method to contain the worst oil spill in U.S. history.