It was one year ago that the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico blew up, killing 11 workers and unleashing the worst oil spill in U.S. history. Since the accident, Congress has held 60 hearings and introduced 150 bills to improve the safety of offshore drilling.

 

But not a single piece of legislation has been adopted.

 

“It’s ludicrous that Congress hasn’t acted. It’s been a year since the spill and, if anything, they’ve regressed,” Peter LaFontaine, a spokesman for the National Wildlife Federation, told the Shreveport Times. By contrast, less than 18 months after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act, which forced oil storage facilities and oil tankers to submit detailed plans for dealing with spills.

 

The Obama administration did take two actions after the spill. It split up the Minerals Management Service, which used to oversee offshore drilling while collecting revenues from the industry it regulated, and created a new office: the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

 

The administration also temporarily banned new drilling in deep waters in the Gulf for several months. It lifted the restriction last October.

 

Among the bills that fell by the wayside were ones that would have eliminated the liability limit for offshore facilities; required an audit and investigation of the Gulf Coast Claims Facility, which was set up to handle claims from workers and others impacted by the spill; and outlined specific duties of federal agencies during a spill.

Since Republicans took over the House of Representatives in January, the House Natural Resources Committee has approved three oil spill-related bills…including one to speed up the process to permit oil companies to drill offshore.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

Congress Slow to Enact Oil Spill Legislation (by Deborah Barfield Berry, Shreveport Times)

Nil, Baby, Nil: Congress Fails to Pass a Single Oil Spill Law (by Marcus Baram, Huffington Post)