The British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico could cost $8 billion to clean up, but under federal law BP’s financial responsibility for the problem is capped at $75 million.

Which is an obvious problem that needs some fixing, and today Washington Sen. Patty Murray is signing on as a co-sponsor to a measure, originally put forward by Sen Robert Menendez (D-NJ), that would raise that liability cap to $10 billion.

In a statement announcing the move, Murray said:

Washington state taxpayers should never be left holding the bag for oil companies’ environmental and economic disasters. This is a simple issue of fairness—if an oil company causes a spill, they should have to pay to clean it up. This issue hits close to home for families in the Northwest who saw first-hand the devastation caused by the Exxon Valdez disaster and the long battle over cleanup costs.

She also noted that the BP spill—which the company has suggested it will pay for, though it’s not clear up to what dollar amount—came right after BP announced its quarterly profit had shot up to $6 billion.

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

12 replies on “Sen. Murray Joins Effort to Make Oil Companies Like BP Pay More for Spills”

  1. BP is legally liable for 100% of clean up costs but has limited exposure of $75,000,000 for non-cleanup costs. The US military is basically going to bill them, for example. It’s the fact that there are ANY caps at all on this sort of thing that are fundamentally wrong.

  3. This is a wise and sound method for guiding the invisible hand of the market to react to all stimuli.

    Only an anti-capitalist who hates capitalism would be against this.

    Or one of those monopolistic shopkeepers trying to build swimming pools on their property in Greece (98 percent of which are not paying taxes for such).

  4. The Stranger hires a printer for its print edition. The printer buys newsprint from a pulp mill that emits pollutants into the air and water. The Stranger ought to pay for its share of the cleanup of the pollution.

  5. @4 Do you wipe your ass with toilet paper or your hand? Do you wash off either with water? Pot, kettle, pointless analogies activate!

  6. yeah thanks@1 – i think there is a LOT of confusion about what BP is responsible for.
    i’m going to repeat what you wrote – am i getting this right?

    BP is actually required to pay for %100 of the CLEANUP (ie, stopping the leaks, scooping up/burning/dispersing oil on water, scouring beaches, deploying oil barriers, rescuing animals etc). But they are only responsible for $75million in ADDITIONAL lawsuits from folks like unemployed fishermen, aquaculturists, tourism industry, etc.

    did i get that right?

    if i did, then it is a little bit inaccurate to say that BP is only responsible for $75 million.

    if i got it wrong, then i’m totally confused. i’ve read so many articles about this and they all sum it up slightly differently.

  7. So … the cost of clean up costs about 8 billion, they just made 6 billion, taker the difference of the next year, and they STILL come out 4 billion on top. Everyone following this arithmatic? Hell they can probably sue Haliburton for failing to utilize all of the safety features, and VOILA!!! Back in business.

    Hell, they are erecting another platform to siphon off oil from the spill, and perhaps even replace the platform that just blew up. You know … lost economy and environmental travesty of the gulf coast .. the lack of oysters now that I reside in the Southeast U. S. … I mean, this could have a more positive in spite of everything else that’s on the news.

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