BP Chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg emerged from what he called a “constructive” meeting with President Obama. Obama, said Svanberg, was “frustrated because he cares about the small people, and we care about the small people.”[!!! — ed.]

Svanberg also said that BP will defer dividend payments through 2010 — totaling about $8 billion. Fun fact: those most greatly impacted by this move will be British retirees.

UPDATE: Here’s the White House fact sheet on the $20 billion escrow fund.

UPDATE II: White House energy and climate priestess Carol Browner is now talking details of the BP meeting and the escrow fund with reporters. Key facts:

– The $20-billion figure was a White House number. It is neither a floor nor a ceiling.
– BP will also make a $100-million “voluntary contribution” to a separate fund for unemployed oil workers affected by the moratorium.
– But, the administration will also ask Congress to extend unemployment insurance protection to oil workers who wouldn’t otherwise have qualified. That’s taxpayer money to pay the salaries of workers whose jobs the administration unilaterally took.
– BP has already cut a total of 26,000 checks for $81 million. That’s already cleared the $75 million liability cap.
– Chuck Todd asks Robert Gibbs why Obama didn’t mention a carbon tax in his speech last night. Gibbs just says the President’s “direction on energy” is similar to what’s in Kerry-Lieberman, also that the “climate component” is “important.”