Almost three months after a BP oil well exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, thousands of barrels' worth of oil continues to leak out every day, and residents' panic level keeps rising. Several Gulf residents were in Maine today to passionately advocate for climate change legislation that they say could have prevented a disaster that's devastating their livelihoods and coastlines.

"Please don't listen to some of the ads you see -- we are not being fixed, we are not OK," says Ann Costello (left), a ship supplier from Pensacola, Florida, where tar balls are collecting on the beach.

Costello says Americans need to find energy alternatives to oil. "At what cost do I want to have lights so that I can look out there and see nothing in the way of wildlife, and have the waters all around me polluted and then look at my child and say, 'I'm sorry son, you've got to leave this area if you want to have a life, because for the duration, Pensacola is finished for you.'"

Costello and three other residents were brought to Portland by the environmental group Repower America, which sees Maine's two moderate Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, as key votes on climate change.

"Eventually oil's going to run out. They should be investing in something different. There's more solar power in Germany there is in Florida, the Sunshine State," says Dan Adams (below), a charter boat captain from the west coast of Florida. He says while the oil spill hasn't reached the shores of his city, Dunedin, customers are worried that the fish they want to catch are being contaminated by the oil, and the chemicals used to disperse it.

"Basically, I'm here to say that as of next week, I'm basically out of business. I talked to BP and they were funny -- they said, 'Well Captain Dan, what are you putting a claim in for?' I said, 'Basically, because you put me out of business.' They said, 'Be serious, Captain Dan, because they had a big spill like this 30 years ago in Texas, and within six years, it was all...' I said, 'Excuse me? Six years. Who can stay out of business for six years?'"

"We absolutely understand people's frustation, their anger, their disappointment and their concern, and we share the same emotions," says Daren Beaudo, a BP spokesman based in Houston. Beaudo says that the company is taking full responsibility for the spill and has deployed more than 40,000 people and 6,000 vessels to clean up the Gulf.

Beaudo adds that BP does not disagree with the message of the Gulf residents calling for a clean energy policy. "BP believes that a broad energy mix that includes renewable alternative energies is important. That's why we've invested several billion dollars over the last couple of years. We have a large biofuels business, we have a large solar business, we have a large wind business -- that's an important energy to come. But until that transition can be fully made to a different kind of energy environment, we still need oil and gas as the underpinnings of our energy, and of our economy and our society."

The climate change legislation before the Senate proposes tightening restrictions on carbon emissions and promoting alternative energy but has been languishing for months.

"At this point, the Senate legislation is still somewhat ambiguous," says Linda Lyon, who was representing Senator Snowe at the event in Portland, at the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Snowe has expressed interest in addressing climate change by having utilities bid at auction for "carbon shares" for every ton of fossil carbon.

"She is so interested nationally in environmental and energy issues and certainly for the state of Maine, and what affects the Gulf affects all of us and she certainly wanted someone to be here," Lyon says.

Collins, who was also represented at the event, is co-sponsoring climate legislation that would set up a similar but more expansive carbon-trading system that would include fossil fuel producers and importers.

The latest version of climate change legislation incorporating ideas from different bills is expected to be unveiled in the Senate next week.