Senator Reid introduces oil spill response package

The BP disaster in the Gulf is a sobering reminder of the serious environmental and economic risks associated with oil drilling. Senator Reid today unveiled a bill that will begin to put in place the safeguards to ensure that such a disaster never happens again.  

The Reid bill, which may come up for a vote as early as next week, would make a number of improvements in current law.  Based on the summary of the bill made available today, provisions are included that would:

• Eliminate the $75 million cap on damages so that polluters, not the public, are accountable for all the damages from an oil spill, including damages to natural resources and economic damages. This improvement would apply to existing claims, including claims for damages resulting from the BP oil spill;
• Strengthen the requirements for oil spill response plans, including requiring that such plans identify the impacts of a worst case spill and the response activities to prevent or mitigate those impacts;
• Strengthen the policy and standards applicable to decisions on where, when and whether to lease areas for offshore drilling—for example, oil drilling would be allowed only when it can be done in a way that provides adequate protection to life, health, the environment, property and other uses of the sea;
• Fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Program for the next 5 years;
• Restore the reasonableness standard to the determination of punitive damages resulting from an oil spill, rather than limit such damages to the amount of compensatory damages as was done in the Exxon Valdez case.
• Increase to $5 billion (from $1 billion) the per incident amount available under the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund for damages from an oil spill and increase the per barrel fee going into the Trust Fund.

While an important step forward, the bill would be stronger if it included the following:

• A stable source of funding to protect and restore our oceans.  Our oceans provide us with food, clean air and a regulated climate, but are facing numerous threats, including from oil spills.  If we expect to retain the ecosystem services provided by our oceans, we must provide a continual investment in their health. The National Endowment for the Oceans Act, S. 3641, introduced last week by Senators Whitehouse, Snowe and Rockefeller, would create a stable source of funding for the protection, maintenance and restoration of our oceans, coasts and Great Lakes. 
• A strong role for NOAA in oil and gas decisions.  It is important for NOAA, the nation’s ocean agency, to be given a stronger role to influence decisions that affect important marine resources over which NOAA has jurisdiction.  Specifically, NOAA should be given deference to recommend alternatives or mitigation measures related to oil and gas activities that the Secretary of Interior should accept unless there is a compelling reason for such measures to be rejected. 
• Ensure independence of the newly established science office in the Interior Department.  A hallmark of effective reform of offshore oil and gas regulation is the application of scientifically valid, unbiased, and credible environmental information to all stages of planning, leasing, and regulation.  This legislation would create an independent science office within the Bureau which handles leasing activities.  While establishing a science office is a good first step, to ensure scientific integrity, the office should be given a Senate-confirmed Director, at the very least.  A better step would be to establish the office within the Bureau that handles enforcement issues.