Residents of Louisiana and Mississippi, have mostly welcomed Barack Obama's condemnation of BP over the oil spill, but say they mean nothing without action, and some have criticised the president for not acting sooner.
Vowing to "make BP pay," the US President accused the oil giant of "recklessness" in his first address to the nation from the Oval Office on Tuesday night, eight weeks to the day after the catastrophic oil spill began destroying waterways, wildlife and a prized Gulf Coast way of life.
"We will fight this spill with everything we've got for as long it takes," declared Obama, whose own presidency has been stumbling because of the gushing oil.
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Obama offered no immediate remedies for a frustrated nation.
Rather he announced he had asked former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus to develop a long-term Gulf Coast Restoration Plan - to be funded by BP PLC - in concert with local states, communities, fishermen, conservationists and residents "as soon as possible."
Mixed reaction
James Swayne, who has been in the shrimp business in Venice, Louisiana his whole life, gave the President the thumbs up.
"I liked everything he said, and that he's been saying. He's been standing up for us," Swayne said. "He's been down here, he's been to Grand Isle, he's been to Alabama, he's been, you know, and everybody said well why don't he come back? And I said well he just can't keep coming back to Venice. You know he's gotta go the whole Gulf Coast."
But Ray Sopreano, also a fisherman from Venice, was angry.
" I didn't like nothing he said. Cause he ain't showing what he wants to do. Straight up," he said.
White House showdown
Looking ahead to his White House showdown with BP executives on Wednesday morning, Obama said he would "inform" them that the company must set aside in an independently run fund whatever resources are required to make whole all local residents and businesses hurt by the spill and to repair the immense ecological damage wrought by the oil.
That meeting is to be followed by a presidential statement - his fourth planned remarks on the spill in three days.
Later in the week, BP leaders will take the Washington hot seat again, appearing before more congressional hearings.
In a brief statement, the company only said it shares Obama's "goal of shutting off the well as quickly as possible, cleaning up the oil and mitigating the impact on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast."
Opinion polls
Opinion polls show most Americans believe Obama has been too detached in dealing with the crisis and has not been tough enough in dealing with BP.
Adding a fresh sense of urgency, a team of US scientists on Tuesday upped their high-end estimate of the amount of crude oil flowing from the well by 50 percent, to a range of 35,000 to 60,000 barrels (5.57 million to 9.54 million litres) per day.
The spill has been flowing since April 20, when an explosion on the BP Deepwater Horizon rig sank the drilling platform and killed 11 workers.
