Murray to Big Oil: Taxpayers Won’t Pay for Your Mistakes

(Washington D.C.) – Today,
U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) announced that she cosponsored legislation to
make sure that oil companies are held accountable for the economic costs
resulting from spills. Currently, the responsible party in an oil spill must cover
all costs related to clean up; however, there is a $75 million cap on its
liability for economic damages, such as lost business revenues from fishing and
tourism, natural resources damages or lost local tax revenues. The Big Oil
Bailout Prevention legislative package would raise the liability cap from $75
million to $10 billion.

“Washington
state taxpayers should never be left holding the bag for oil companies’
environmental and economic disasters,” said Senator Patty Murray. “This
is a simple issue of fairness—if an oil company causes a spill, they should
have to pay to clean it up. This issue hits close to home for families in the
Northwest who saw first-hand the devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez
disaster and the long battle over cleanup costs.”

The
Big Oil Bailout Prevention legislative package was introduced yesterday by
Senator Bob Menendez. 

The
legislative package is composed of two bills. One to increase the oil spill
liability cap and the other is to reform the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund

S.
3305, The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Liability Act would:

• Raise
  the liability cap for offshore oil well spills from $75 million to $10 billion.

S.
3306, The Big Oil Bailout Prevention Trust Fund Act would:

• Eliminate
  the $1 billion per incident cap on claims against the Oil Spill Liability Trust
  Fund and allow community responders to access the fund for preparation and
  mitigation up front, rather than waiting for reimbursement later.
• If
  damage claims exceed the amount in the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund
  (currently $1.6 billion), then Treasury can temporarily refill the Fund and be
  repaid with interest once it is replenished. 
• Eliminate
  the $500 million cap on natural resources damages.

The
Big Oil Bailout Prevention legislative package was introduced on the heels of
the British Petroleum Gulf Coast oil spill disaster, and days after BP
announced that their single-quarter profits doubled to $6 billion.