Frustration Mounts As Congress Can't Even Get BP's Liability Cap Raised

[robinblue]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/gulf-oil-spill-frustratio_n_588556.html

Gulf Oil Spill: Frustration Mounts As Congress Can't Even Get BP's Liability Cap Raised

First Posted: 05-25-10 10:25 AM | Updated: 05-25-10 10:25 AM



It's been more than three weeks since Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) unveiled a proposal to raise the liability cap to $10 billion for oil companies involved in economically damaging offshore spills. And despite two efforts to pass the legislation through the Senate, the backing of the president and an ever-dire crisis in the Gulf of Mexico, there currently exists no clear path forward for getting the idea into law.

Under normal circumstances, the inaction would be chalked up to the normal lethargy of the Senate chamber. Three weeks, after all, is a relative blip in a legislative calendar that often sees bills and nominations debated well beyond that. But disasters -- such as the expanding oil spill in the Gulf -- usually spur quick, populist-stoked legislative action. The mere fact that Congress has been unable to accomplish something as politically obvious as asking companies like BP to pay more for the spills they create has some on the Hill shaking their heads.

"Beyond anything else," said one Senate Democratic aide, "it's frustrating."

The failure to pass Menendez's proposal has become symbolic, in no small way, of what Democratic strategist James Carville described as a "lackadaisical" response to the crisis as a whole. As with the government's efforts to stop the flow of leaking oil, top Senate Democratic aides insist that they are utilizing all the available tools to get the liability cap raise into law. So far, two unanimous consent agreements to pass the bill have failed after a single Republican senator expressed objections -- worried, they say, that the higher liability would make it prohibitively expensive for smaller oil companies to drill in the Gulf. .................

[Jennicut]

1. Rethugs once again trying to stop govt. from working, so it can be blamed on Dems.

Can't they just let Rethugs filibuster or threaten an all night session?

[KansDem]

2. It's like Congress was scurrying across a highway somewhere and got run over...

Run over by a corporate Hummer.

It just lies there, twitching helplessly in its death throes, waiting and hoping to be put it out of its misery...

[golddigger]

3. Congress is worthless.

[paparush]

4. Conservatives - Is there nothing they won't fuck up?

[autorank]

5. Great post. Thank you! k*r

This will not last long. There's a huge outrage building among nonpolitical types ... I've heard it in just the past two days. This is outrageous, totally. Pathetic display of gutlessness.

[nykym]

6. Change the CAP to

$9,999,999.00 they repukes will think its a bargain and pass it LOL!

[tledford]

14. How does going from $75 million to $1 less than $10 million help?

I'm missing something...

[tledford]

15. Here are a couple of ideas:

1. Cap the liability at the value of the companies stock at the time of the incident.
2. Is it time to amend the constitution to eliminate the Senate? It is a fundamentally patrician institution that is by its very nature undemocratic.

[nykym]

17. oops!

all those numbers make my head spin. What I meant to say is make the cap $9,999,999,999.00 It's and old advertising trick instead of saying $10.00 you say only $9.99. It makes people think they are getting a bargain.

[cilla4progress]

7. GODDESS this makes me feel better

"Plug the damn hole." That's what I want to see from Obama! Anger! Yes, we all love and appreciate his cool, but there are times when a visceral reaction - anger - is just plain called for. I want him to be as angry as I am! (It's how I keep from crying!).

[ShortnFiery]

9. Face the fact that we don't even know if that report is authentic?

We need strong leadership. A good start would be to significantly RAISE the amount of damages that BP is liable for ... up to an including liquidating all their assets if need be.

Serious times demand serious measures. President Obama needs to call the Majority Leaders in Congress into immediate action. :thumbup:

[cilla4progress]

13. No, I hear you SnF

and I'm with you 100%. Nothing is too much at this point.

[flamingdem]

8. WTF !!! nt

[global1]

10. And Now They Are Working To Take Out Menendez.....

discussion of a recall of Menendez.

[Inuca]

19. Recall? For what? n/t

[glitch]

11. The WH is Focused on the Future, not only the Past but now the Present given Free Passes.

http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/05/25/25greenwire-obama-administration-supports-lifting-liability-2382.html

[Arkana]

12. It's not Congress--it's the fucking REPUBLICANS in Congress.

[donco6]

16. Then for every day they delay let's change the cap another mag of 10.

Why is there a cap at all?

[RamboLiberal]

18. Why the hell isn't this being covered by MSM as much as

Obama is not doing enough?

There's growing frustration about the administration's response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, with complaints that officials have been sluggish in demanding BP be more transparent and hesitant to criticize the company's inability to plug the well. The administration clearly faces a number of tough choices here with few right answers, but there's one area where it could be weighing in on specifics but haven't: the liability cap on oil spills.

An effort is underway in the Senate to raise the liability cap to $10 billion. This would be significantly higher than the current cap of $75 million, set under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, though it still might still be well below the estimated $14 billion in costs anticipated in the gulf spill. Senate Democrats have tried twice to bring up the measure under unanimous consent but were twice blocked -- first by Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and then by James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

Both Republicans offered the same argument: Too high of a cap would keep smaller, "independent" oil companies from entering the marketplace. The idea that a company should be able to drill and potentially cause problems that it can't afford to fix should register as patently ridiculous. But then Obama's own interior secretary, Ken Salazar, essentially agreed with them. "You don’t want only the BPs of the world to be involved in these operations," said Salazar in a Senate hearing last week.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2010/05/how_high_the_liability_cap.html

Obama needs to blast Inhofe & Murkowski and any other damn Repuke who tries to block this!

[leftynyc]

20. Now here is where Pres Obama

should be shouting from the rooftops. Time to admit his support for offshore drilling was misguided, he's learned a painful lesson and now it's time to break the back of BP and the pukes in congress who continue to protect the oil companies. Do a national TV ad interspersed with images of oil covered beaches, pelicans, birds...and the congress who sits around and does nothing to protect the environment or the gulf states as they get fouled beyond all recognition.