Senate Republicans Offer “Alternative” to Democratic Bill to Hold BP Fully Accountable for Devastating the Gulf Coast: ‘Do the Polar Opposite’
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July 29, 2010 Jeremy Funk, 202-470-5878
Senate Republicans Offer “Alternative” to Democratic Bill to Hold BP Fully Accountable for Devastating the Gulf Coast: ‘Do the Polar Opposite’
Huffington Post: GOP’s Oil-Spill Liability Bill Would Have BP Only Paying $150 Million
Washington DC – Senate Republicans wasted no time this week unveiling a big-oil-friendly “alternative” to the Democratic Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act, oil-spill-victim-focused legislation that would hold BP fully financially accountable for the cost of the Gulf Coast oil disaster, lower energy costs and create over 160,000 jobs through investments in energy-efficiency, and cut down the nation’s dependence on oil.
Yesterday, Senator David Vitter (R-La.), who has taken $791,335 from the big oil and gas industry, laid out the Grand Oil Party’s plan for letting BP off the hook for their recklessness — with the American taxpayers in its stead. As reported by the Huffington Post: “Under the leading Republican plan for BP’s post-spill economic liability, those affected would receive potentially as little as $150 million due to the oil giant’s expected record loss in this latest quarter.”
Tom McMahon, Executive Director, Americans United for Change: “No surprises here – just outrage. While the well has been dry on new ideas and real solutions from Congressional Republicans for some time now, you can always count on them to offer “alternative” legislation whenever the bottom line of their big corporate donors is threatened. For all their talk about the deficit, not even the biggest oil spill disaster in U.S. history could give Senate Republicans pause before seriously proposing something that would put taxpayers on the hook for the untold billions of dollars in damages BP left in its wake.
“For all their talk about jobs, Senate Republicans will no doubt work overtime to block this legislation that will put over 160,000 Americans back to work through smart investments in energy efficiency. After creating zero net private sector jobs and turning a record surplus into a record deficit during the Bush years, Republicans in Congress are not the economic stewards they think they are. These Republicans need to stop asking themselves, ‘What would Bush do?” or “What does BP want us to do?” and start asking themselves “How can we help clean up the mess we made?”
MORE FROM HUFFINGTON POST:
[T]he GOP has rallied around a counter-proposal, authored by Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) that would cap an oil company’s liability at an amount equal to its profits of the last four quarters. If the company had not made a profit in the past four quarters, it would be liable for $150 million (or twice the current cap).
To be sure, BP still has a chance to turn around its profit margin during the next three quarters. But in terms of net earnings, it is now operating out of a $17 billion hole. If Vitter’s version of economic liability legislation were the law of the land, there would be open concern about the damage payments that Gulf residents would end up recouping. As a Democratic operative working on the issue notes:
When Vitter introduced the bill, we pointed out that one of the co-owners of the Deepwater Horizon rig, Andarko, had not made a profit in the last year. But with this news today, if BP doesn’t overcome this quarter’s losses, next year they could be responsible for a disaster as bad as or worse than the one in the Gulf and they would only be liable for $150 million if Vitter’s bill were law.
UPDATE: An astute reader points out that another Senate candidate, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), has sponsored legislation similar to Vitter’s in the House.