Obama Applauds New Cap's Success, Says We're Not In The Clear Yet

After recent success in temporarily capping the spewing oil well in the Gulf of Mexico, President Barack Obama told reporters Friday that there is an enormous amount of work that still needs to be done. 

The president said the success of new cap is “good news” but, when looking at the bigger picture, all roads end after the two relief wells being drilled are completed and the Macondo well is killed. According to President Obama, the drilling of the two relief wells is ahead of schedule, but said connecting the relief wells to the Macondo well is the most crucial step in finally stopping the flow of oil.

The “well integrity” test that, for the first time in nearly three months, stopped the flow of oil into the Gulf has seen great success so far. If the new cap fails to completely shut down the well, the president said it will be effective in containing nearly 80,000 barrels of oil per day, a monumental increase compared to the 25,000 the previous cap was averaging. 

President Obama urged members of the media and the American people to recognize that this does not mean that our fight against the well is over.

“We won’t be done until we actually know that we’ve killed the well and we have a permanent solution in place,” Obama said. “We’re moving in that direction, but I don’t want us to get too far ahead of ourselves.”