Congress and the Spill

Below is a New York Times OpEd that provides an overview of the actions Congress should take in the Deepwater Horizon Spill and its meaning for future risks the petrochemical industry assumes when endangering the health and human security of Americans. What are your thoughts? xxxxxxx Published: August 2, 2010 Over the opposition of most Republicans and the massed lobbying power of the oil industry, the House last week narrowly approved legislation imposing new safeguards on offshore oil drilling. The bill would tighten environmental rules, sharply increase penalties for spills and, in myriad other ways, seek to minimize the risks of oil and gas exploration in America’s coastal waters. Harry Reid, the majority leader, promises to bring a similar bill to the floor, but there is little time remaining before the recess in which to approve it. It would be shameful if the Senate does not. Still fresh in our minds is the Senate’s lamentable decision to abandon comprehensive energy and climate legislation that the House had passed the year before with considerable political fortitude. The least it can do is muster a meaningful response to one of the most appalling environmental disasters in American history. Both the Senate and the House bills would reorganize the agency at the Interior Department responsible for overseeing drilling — an agency whose serial misbehavior and conflicts of interest allowed BP to manipulate the system and short-circuit regulatory reviews that might have prevented the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Both bills also would provide the presidential commission investigating the blowout with subpoena powers; both would require companies to furnish more detailed response plans before receiving permits to drill; and both would eliminate the $75 million liability cap for companies responsible for a spill. BP already has agreed to pay $20 billion in personal damage claims and could be on the hook for billions more in environmental damages. But lifting the liability cap would serve as a powerful incentive to other companies to take every possible precaution against a blowout. Each bill has worthy provisions that the other does not. The House bill has detailed rules governing blowout preventers, the equipment that failed on the Deepwater Horizon rig. It would close loopholes that have allowed big oil companies to escape an estimated $53 billion in royalties for oil produced in the Gulf of Mexico. The Senate bill includes several energy-efficiency provisions unrelated to the spill, as well as grant programs to encourage the development of vehicles that run on electricity and on natural gas. These merit approval, as do sections in both bills establishing long-term financing for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the government’s main vehicle for acquiring open space. But these and other good provisions will never become law unless the Senate acts. Mr. Reid will not have an easy task of it. Industry continues to complain about the liability provisions. The Republicans will try to end the administration’s six-month moratorium on new deep-water drilling in the gulf, even though a similar attempt failed in the House. But overcoming obstacles like this is what leaders are for. And do the Republicans really want to tell voters in the fall that they have done nothing to respond to the spill? The hand-wringing on Capitol Hill began the moment the Deepwater Horizon caught fire more than 100 days ago. Here is a chance for responsible senators to do their jobs by trying to ensure that a disaster like this never happens again. For More Information: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/03/opinion/03tue1.html?_r=1&hpw