E2-Wire

Gibbs ducks when pressed about Obama-Hayward meeting

by Jordan Fabian - 06/10/10 9:28 PM ET

Hayward is scheduled to be in Washington next week to
testify before a congressional panel about the company’s response to
the oil leak, which Obama has called the worst environmental disaster
in U.S. history.

Despite calls for a meeting between the two,
Gibbs has stressed that an encounter might not yield results because of
the company’s corporate structure.

While Hayward has been the
public face of BP in their ad campaigns, Gibbs said that the day-to-day
actions on the spill are determined by the chairman of the board.

But
when asked if the president would meet with the chairman, Gibbs said,
“I certainly wouldn’t rule out that the president might see the
chairman of the board at some point.”

Gibbs assured reporters that administration officials speak to BP multiple times per day.

Due
to its responsibility for the spill, BP has been pressured by some in
Congress to suspend its dividends to shareholders because of complaints
that it has not fully paid restitution to affected Gulf Coast
residents.

Gibbs refused to call on the company to suspend its
dividends, but said that BP will be held accountable for their
financial obligations.

“I am not going to get involved in their
legal obligations paying dividends,” he said. “If we are going to talk
about paying dividends, if we are going to be seeing $50 million ad
campaigns, we certainly shouldn’t hear about claims not being paid.”

Gibbs
also said that the White House would continue to uphold its six-month
moratorium on deepwater oil drilling despite complaints from Gulf state
lawmakers that it is negatively affecting their states’ economies.

The
press secretary did say that “we believe and understand that there has
to be something done for those whose livelihoods who have been paused.”