Oil Industry Throws Support Behind Begich Spill Liability Proposal

The American Petroleum Institute, the powerful oil industry trade group, is throwing its support behind an oil spill liability compromise proposal unveiled today by Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska).

Begich is currently working on the compromise language with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and other oil-state Democrats who have raised questions about a liability language in oil spill response legislation. Such a compromise is key to winning the lawmakers’ votes and passing an oil spill response bill.

In a statement to TWI, API spokeswoman Cathy Landry said:

We fully support this move toward an insurance pool that would protect American taxpayers without reducing American oil and natural gas production. We are pleased to hear that consideration is underway to fix this job-killing provision of the Senate spill bill. Removing the liability cap, as currently proposed in the Senate bill, would push the vast majority of American producers out of the Gulf, cost American jobs and harm our economy. We hope the Senate works to improving the rest of the bill by taking out other job-killing provisions and by including language to end the current deepwater moratorium.