The effort to contain the nation's worst oil spill hit another snag Wednesday, and the environmental and economic disaster worsened 44 days after an explosion on an offshore rig.  The live video at right showed oil continuing to flow as underwater masses of crude oil drifted closer to the white-sand beaches of the Florida panhandle. Meanwhile, the Justice Department on Tuesday launched criminal and civil probes into the spill. “Eleven people died. We need to make sure BP was not cutting corners," Senator Bernie Sanders told reporters in Vermont. "If BP was not following regulations they're going to have to pay for that."

President Obama on Wednesday said it was time to roll back billions of dollars in tax breaks for oil companies and use the money for clean energy research and development.  Sanders, who is the  chairman of the Senate’s Green Jobs and the New Economy Subcommittee, has said that the potential for energy efficiency and the benefits of clean, renewable forms of energy could be an important lesson from the BP disaster in the gulf.