Obama heads back to the Gulf
Spill czar's prediction: 28,000 barrels a day corralled by week's end

President Obama en route to the Gulf Coast

By Kathy Kiely, USA TODAY

Dressed for cleanup duty -- tieless, in dark slacks and a casual jacket -- President Obama left the White House shortly after 9 a.m. ET for his fourth trip to the Gulf Coast. Among the aides accompanying the president was his chief White House environmental adviser, Carol Browner.

It's a two-day trip that will be capped Tuesday night with a presidential address to the nation on the oil spill disaster. According to CBS correspondent Mark Knoller, human encyclopedia of all things presidential, tomorrow's speech will be the second prime-time televised address on a single topic of Obama's presidency -- and the first from the Oval Office.

The first one was delivered Dec. 1 from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point .

Update, 10:29 a.m. ET: In a letter to BP CEO Tony Hayward, Senate Democrats demand that the oil company create a $20 million, escrow fund to handle claims from the oil spill. Like the White House, the senators want someone other than BP to administer the fund.

"While we are pleased that BP has admitted liability for such damages and vowed to provide full remuneration for economic losses and cleanup costs, history has taught us that corporations often fail to live up to their initial promises," write the senators, led by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.

(Posted by Kathy Kiely)

Obama heads back to the Gulf
Spill czar's prediction: 28,000 barrels a day corralled by week's end