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America: No US Senate oil spill vote before recess, Reid says

https://www.chemnet.com   Aug 05,2010
US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Tuesday he would not hold votes before the chamber's August recess on dueling energy proposals to address
offshore drilling.


The Nevada Democrat had planned to hold test votes Wednesday on a bill of his own and a Republican alternative -- both legislative responses to the Macondo wellhead disaster.


Reid blamed Republicans for the fact that the Senate will leave town this week without passing any new regulations on oil and natural gas production in deep water. While three Democrats said Tuesday that they were considering supporting the Republican energy alternative, no Republicans had expressed support for Reid's bill.


Sixty votes are needed to pass controversial legislation in the US Senate.


"It's a sad day when you can't find a couple of Republicans to support a bill to create clean energy jobs," Reid said.


The Democratic bill would have lifted a $75-million limit on liability for economic damages following an oil spill, increased the fee that oil companies pay to finance the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund to 45 cents/b from 8 cents/b, and mandated other changes for offshore oil and gas producers.


The bill Reid had proposed to move Wednesday also would have spent nearly $15 billion on incentives for alternative fuel and plug-in vehicles, home energy efficiency upgrades, as well as land and water conservation.


"That kind of bill, folks, ought to pass, 100 to nothing," said Massachusetts Democrat John Kerry. "But it's not."


Reid shelved a climate change bill two weeks ago because he said the 60 votes needed to pass controversial legislation in the Senate were not there for a cap-and-trade mandate. He gave the same reason for resisting inclusion of a renewable energy mandate for electrical utilities. He said last week that he believed there were 60 votes for an oil spill bill, which would mean at least one Republican crossover.


"I would not be moving on this if I did not think that," he told reporters two weeks ago.


But instead, some members of his own caucus hinted they might support a competing Republican measure.


Democratic Senators Mark Begich of Alaska, Mary Landrieu of Louisiana and Evan Bayh of Indiana all said Tuesday they might cross the aisle to support the Republican bill, which would have lifted current stays on offshore production for companies that have complied with new safety regulations and directed more funds specifically to the Gulf of Mexico region. Many of the Republican bill's expenditures would have been paid for through "unobligated funds" from last year's economic stimulus law.


Begich and Landrieu were also pushing for changes to the way the Reid bill would deal with oil company liability.


"We're getting closer and closer on it," Begich told reporters at the Capitol Tuesday.


The Begich-Landrieu proposal, when it is completed, will likely be a variation on the liability language included in the Senate Republican bill, which would allow oil companies that engage in offshore drilling to pool their risk through a mutual insurance program.


The two senators also support the Republican bill's provisions sharing offshore drilling revenue with coastal states.


While he said there was insufficient support to pass his oil spill bill before the August recess, Reid said he was hopeful some Republicans would sign on to a similar measure this fall.


"We've had some very good conversations," he told reporters. "Some of the best conversations we've had on energy have been in the past couple of weeks."
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