President says the ‘long battle’ over spill ‘finally close to coming to an end’

President Obama was cautiously optimistic Wednesday about efforts to permanently seal the Gulf of Mexico oil well and a new government report saying that much of the spilled oil is no longer in the water.

But administration officials warned that the effects of the oil that remains — and did pollute the environment — will represent a risk to wildlife and the economy for “years and possibly decades to come.”

{mosads}”It was very welcome news when we learned overnight that efforts to stop the well through what is called a ‘static kill’ appear to be working,” Obama said before a speech to the AFL-CIO. “And a report out today by our scientists shows that the vast majority of the spilled oil has been dispersed or removed from the water. So the long battle to stop the leak and contain the oil is finally close to coming to an end, and we are very pleased by that.”



The White House moved to take credit for the progress, boasting that a speedy federal response lessened the damage considerably, but officials warned that this is not the end.

“There’s a lot of reasons why there’s no ‘Mission Accomplished’ banner,” White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said.

In a fact sheet sent out Wednesday, the White House said the “vast majority of the oil from the BP oil spill has either evaporated or been burned, skimmed, recovered from the wellhead or dispersed — much of which is in the process of being degraded.


”A significant amount of this is the direct result of the robust federal response efforts,” the release said.

Officials warned that the well is still not dead, and that the final blow — the completion of the relief well and subsequent “bottom kill” — is still as many as two weeks away.

Gibbs and other administration officials stressed that while they welcome the news, “today is not an end.”

“The consequence to shrimpers and fishermen remains to be calculated,” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration administrator Jane Lubchenco.

Lubchenco said that “nobody is saying [the oil] isn’t a threat anymore.”

“Diluted and out of sight doesn’t necessarily mean benign,” she said.

While officials stressed that the well is still not completely shut off and environmental recovery and restoration will still take time, the national incident commander, retired Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said he has “high confidence that there will be no oil leaking into the environment” until it is killed.

This post was updated at 4:22 p.m.