That Washington
Murray Working On New Effort to Make BP Pay
This was originally posted at 2 pm today.
[caption id="attachment_41687" align="alignnone" width="420" caption="Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)"]
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Today, the U.S. Senate will consider completely removing the economic liability cap for oil companies responsible for a spill.
The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act (BOBPA?), which would have raised that cap from $75 million to $10 billion, was proposed in early May after the spill and cosponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). A new version, which completely removes the cap—which Murray strongly supports—will be introduced to the floor today by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) either for unanimous passage or to be referred to a committee, said Sen. Murray's spokesman Eli Zupnick.
Under current law, BP is already responsible for the cost of cleanup, but is not wholly liable for the host of economic damages an oil spill causes, such as the loss of tourism and fishing revenue, among other things. If BOBA passes, BP could be found liable in court for billions upon billions of economic damages along the gulf coast and beyond.
"She (Sen. Murray) is going to keep pushing for this bill to pass so Washington state taxpayers never have to pay to clean up after big oil companies’ mistakes," said Zupnick.
Proponents, led by Sen. Menendez, have brought the first version of the act to the Senate floor several times over the past month, but each attempt for unanimous passage was blocked by Republicans.
John Diamond, spokesman for Sen. Maria Cantwell, who has not taken a position on the new version of BOBA yet, said Cantwell does supports a higher economic liability cap than what's on the books now.
Diamond did point out one of the potential side effects of doing away with an economic liability cap that could actually end up rewarding companies like BP.
"The problem with unlimited liability is that no driller could get insurance, which would leave the entire offshore field to the big integrated companies, like BP, that are able to afford to self-insure," he said. "Not really in a mood to reward BP these days."
Cantwell's recently made headlines for a grilling she gave Lamar McKay, BP's top exec, telling him that his company will pay for a list of economic damage claims similar to those that the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act addresses.
We've got an email into Dino Rossi, the Republican frontrunner for Sen. Patty Murray's Congressional seat, asking what his stance on raising and/or completely lifting the cap would be.
[caption id="attachment_41687" align="alignnone" width="420" caption="Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)"]
[/caption]
Today, the U.S. Senate will consider completely removing the economic liability cap for oil companies responsible for a spill.
The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act (BOBPA?), which would have raised that cap from $75 million to $10 billion, was proposed in early May after the spill and cosponsored by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA). A new version, which completely removes the cap—which Murray strongly supports—will be introduced to the floor today by Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey) either for unanimous passage or to be referred to a committee, said Sen. Murray's spokesman Eli Zupnick.
Under current law, BP is already responsible for the cost of cleanup, but is not wholly liable for the host of economic damages an oil spill causes, such as the loss of tourism and fishing revenue, among other things. If BOBA passes, BP could be found liable in court for billions upon billions of economic damages along the gulf coast and beyond.
"She (Sen. Murray) is going to keep pushing for this bill to pass so Washington state taxpayers never have to pay to clean up after big oil companies’ mistakes," said Zupnick.
Proponents, led by Sen. Menendez, have brought the first version of the act to the Senate floor several times over the past month, but each attempt for unanimous passage was blocked by Republicans.
John Diamond, spokesman for Sen. Maria Cantwell, who has not taken a position on the new version of BOBA yet, said Cantwell does supports a higher economic liability cap than what's on the books now.
Diamond did point out one of the potential side effects of doing away with an economic liability cap that could actually end up rewarding companies like BP.
"The problem with unlimited liability is that no driller could get insurance, which would leave the entire offshore field to the big integrated companies, like BP, that are able to afford to self-insure," he said. "Not really in a mood to reward BP these days."
Cantwell's recently made headlines for a grilling she gave Lamar McKay, BP's top exec, telling him that his company will pay for a list of economic damage claims similar to those that the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act addresses.
We've got an email into Dino Rossi, the Republican frontrunner for Sen. Patty Murray's Congressional seat, asking what his stance on raising and/or completely lifting the cap would be.
