Barbara Feeney, Gulfport: “I’m appalled, just appalled at BP’s actions but I don’t blame Tony Hayward directly for the spill. I’ve been following this whole thing since it happened. I’m very environmentally conscious and I can’t believe that the employees who were on that rig didn’t tell someone about the safety issues. Workers who work out there on the boats and on the rigs have what’s called a stop work authority; they can refuse to continue their work if their safety is jeopardized in any way. I heard that workers on the rig told their superiors that there were problems, but I guess the higher-ups didn’t want to hear about it. There actually were executives from the main companies on board that day of the accident, bragging about their safety record. BP just felt safe and the company just never thought anything like this would ever happen. They weren’t prepared. The men in the ivory towers want THEIR life back? So do the people who live on the Gulf Coast. They will never have the way of life again that they’ve had there for generations. The oyster beds are dead, the wildlife is suffering terribly and so many people are out of business. It’s a disgrace that they are living hand to mouth. I can’ imagine living up there with all this. I’ve been up in that area and it’s beautiful; great for camping right on the Gulf. If I went there I would just sit and cry. I think Tony Hayward should donate some of his severance to every guy that owns a shrimp or an oyster boat whose lives have been affected forever by BP’s negligence!”

Jeanie Nadozzi, St. Pete: “No, No, No!! You give a severance package to a person who has performed the job they were hired for! He’s already a millionaire. The way I see it, he has a job which entails that whatever he is responsible to be doing for that job should be done. He’s supposed to know what his job is that he was originally hired for. If he doesn’t do that job, he should be fired, like anyone else would be for a poor job performance. Why is he being compensated for a job he did not perform? Did he have a contract with BP that outlined his duties? Did those duties include knowing what was happening on those oil rigs? Was he supposed to know about the safety problems, as CEO? If he did, then he failed his job obligations. He had to have known, as CEO, what was going on the whole time, especially with the amount of money he was making. I couldn’t believe that they’re giving him such a huge severance package while so many of the people affected by his and his company’s ineptitude are starving and losing their businesses. The sheer massive amount of wildlife that’s dying is just shocking; all the while he’s being paid an enormous amount of money. Money that could be used to help the people directly affected by the spill!”

Keith Muse, St. Pete: “It’s a bunch of crap. I blame him for not having the safety features in place in the first place. They should have been honest from the beginning when the accident happened; they could have maintained some sort of credibility. They just made it worse, by downplaying the damage, both to the rig itself and to the environment. Now, no one would believe Tony Hayward or anyone else from BP. They just wanted the profits. Speaking of that, why are they still allowed to keep siphoning oil out of the well? It seems that they could have capped it permanently; I’ve heard that wells on land can just be blown up and closed. It seems like they weren’t in any real hurry to cap it off. This cover for the top is merely a conduit that will still allow them to get the oil to their ships, where they will then process it and sell it back to us! I just can’t understand why they are still allowed to get oil out for profit. I don’t think Hayward or anyone from BP is telling the truth about this whole incident and for him to make all that money while others are losing everything just seems obscene.”