**Updated** BP OKs $20 billion escrow fund for spill

President Barack Obama met with the company's top executives at the White House — and news of the agreement emerged shortly afterward.

BP executives, including Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO Tony Hayward and BP U.S. boss Lamar McKay, attended the meeting with Obama and other top administration officials.

The independent fund will be led by lawyer Kenneth Feinberg, who oversaw payments to families of victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

In his current role, Feinberg is known as Obama's "pay czar," setting salary limits for companies getting the most aid from a $700 billion government bailout fund.

Obama was to officially announce the deal in a Rose Garden statement later Wednesday.
Escrow Fund To Be Set Up


This is a good start to fixing the problems of people getting the help that has been sorely needed and slow to come.



Meahwhile, Sarah Palin offered her reaction to the President's address last night and was once again proving herself to be an idiot with no understanding of the situation or what was going on with the Gulf Oil Spill.

She claimed that President Obama has not made it clear that the top priority was stopping the flow of oil in the gulf, and that he should be calling back the Dutch who are known for their Dikes, Cleaning up water and spills.

Palingates has more to the story as well.
Sarah Palin, in her attempts to undermine President Obama, continues to make wild claims about her tough stance when she dealt with the oil companies in Alaska before she quit the office of governor.

Why anyone takes this woman seriously is beyond me.




**UPDATE**

BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg announced shortly after his meeting with President Obama that BP will pay no more dividends this year. The recently announced BP dividend payment due next week on June 21 will also be canceled.

By midday Wednesday, BP had also agreed to pay $20 billion into an escrow account to cover oil spill claims, bowing to pressure from the government after a meeting in the White House. Though initial reports said the agreement for the $20 billion fund was tentative, and BP would not pay the $20 billion in one lump sum. BP also set up a $100 million fund for workers who lost their jobs as a result of the federal ban on offshore drilling.

BP Says No Further Dividends For 2010