US President Barack Obama has said the oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico will have the same impact on the US psyche as 9/11.
In an interview with US website Politico, he said the disaster would "shape how we think about the environment... for years to come".
Later on Monday, Mr Obama will pay a fourth visit to the affected area and spend the night there.
On Tuesday, he will address the country on the subject from the White House.
A presidential aide said he would outline the next steps his administration would be taking over the spill.
Continue reading the main story
This week, the BBC is assessing the impact of the Louisiana oil spill. Correspondents in the US, the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria and London will be reporting for the BBC World Service, World News TV and the BBC News website.
Full coverage of the oil disaster
Mr Obama has visited Louisiana on three occasions. He will now be visiting states affected by the crisis which he has not been to so far - Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.
BP placed a containment cap on its damaged oil well earlier this month; by last week it was collecting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day.
It is estimated that some 40,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons) of oil a day might have been gushing out before the well was capped.
The right lessons
Mr Obama said the disaster would have a lasting impact on US environmental policy.
"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come," he said in the Politico interview.
Mr Obama vowed to "move forward in a bold way in a direction that finally gives us the kind of future-oriented… visionary energy policy that we so vitally need and has been absent for so long".
"One of the biggest leadership challenges for me going forward is going to be to make sure that we draw the right lessons from this disaster," he said.
Mr Obama said he could not predict whether the nation would make a complete transition from an oil-based economy within his lifetime, but added that "now is the time for us to start making that transition and investing in a new way of doing business when it comes to energy".
"I have no idea what new energy sources are going to be available, what technologies might drive down the price of renewable energies," he said.
"What we can predict is that the availability of fossil fuel is going to be diminishing; that it's going to get more expensive to recover; that there are going to be environmental costs that our children… our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren are going to have to bear
"seems a bit far fetched to call environmental 9/11 when its on small number of people have died and there loss of life was tragic! And bp are trying to resolve the devastation of the areas affected"
In an interview with US website Politico, he said the disaster would "shape how we think about the environment... for years to come".
Later on Monday, Mr Obama will pay a fourth visit to the affected area and spend the night there.
On Tuesday, he will address the country on the subject from the White House.
A presidential aide said he would outline the next steps his administration would be taking over the spill.
Continue reading the main story
This week, the BBC is assessing the impact of the Louisiana oil spill. Correspondents in the US, the Gulf of Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria and London will be reporting for the BBC World Service, World News TV and the BBC News website.
Full coverage of the oil disaster
Mr Obama has visited Louisiana on three occasions. He will now be visiting states affected by the crisis which he has not been to so far - Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.
BP placed a containment cap on its damaged oil well earlier this month; by last week it was collecting about 15,000 barrels of oil a day.
It is estimated that some 40,000 barrels (1.7 million gallons) of oil a day might have been gushing out before the well was capped.
The right lessons
Mr Obama said the disaster would have a lasting impact on US environmental policy.
"In the same way that our view of our vulnerabilities and our foreign policy was shaped profoundly by 9/11, I think this disaster is going to shape how we think about the environment and energy for many years to come," he said in the Politico interview.
Mr Obama vowed to "move forward in a bold way in a direction that finally gives us the kind of future-oriented… visionary energy policy that we so vitally need and has been absent for so long".
"One of the biggest leadership challenges for me going forward is going to be to make sure that we draw the right lessons from this disaster," he said.
Mr Obama said he could not predict whether the nation would make a complete transition from an oil-based economy within his lifetime, but added that "now is the time for us to start making that transition and investing in a new way of doing business when it comes to energy".
"I have no idea what new energy sources are going to be available, what technologies might drive down the price of renewable energies," he said.
"What we can predict is that the availability of fossil fuel is going to be diminishing; that it's going to get more expensive to recover; that there are going to be environmental costs that our children… our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren are going to have to bear
"seems a bit far fetched to call environmental 9/11 when its on small number of people have died and there loss of life was tragic! And bp are trying to resolve the devastation of the areas affected"
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