House Democratic Amendment Similar to Recently Introduced Bill by GOP Congressman Scalise –

Vanishing Paradise commended an amendment in an updated oil spill response bill introduced last night by U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Ma.) that would implement a key recommendation by the bipartisan oil spill commission. The recommendation is for Congress to dedicate 80 percent of Clean Water Act penalties to be assessed for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill to Gulf Coast restoration.

Vanishing Paradise also praised GOP Louisiana Congressman Steve Scalise for introducing bipartisan legislation earlier this month to require at least 80 percent of the civil and criminal penalties charged to BP under the Clean Water Act be returned to the Gulf Coast for long-term economic and environmental recovery. That bill, the Gulf Restoration Act (H.R. 56), is cosponsored by four Louisiana GOP Congressmen – Reps. Rodney Alexander, Charles Boustany, Bill Cassidy and Jeffrey Landry – and one Louisiana Democratic Congressman, Rep. Cedric Richmond.

“We thank the Louisiana delegation and Representative Markey for their leadership on an issue that is vital to restoring the Gulf ecosystem, especially coastal Louisiana,” Land Tawney, National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for sportsmen leadership, said. “We look forward to working with House and Senate leaders of both parties-and sportsmen who support the recovery of this ‘Sportsmen’s Paradise’-on securing legislation to send the oil spill penalties back to the Gulf region where they belong.”

The fines for violations of the Clean Water Act (CWA) alone will range from a maximum of between $1,100 and $4,300 for each of the 4.9 million barrels spilled, depending upon whether the responsible parties are found to have been grossly negligent for the Macondo Well blowout. Current estimates of the CWA fines range from a maximum of between $5 billion and $21 billion.

“Without this Congressional action, any fines collected from parties responsible for the Gulf oil disaster will automatically be deposited in the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund and Federal Treasury, respectively, and not to address the needs of fish and wildlife habitat impacted by the disaster,” Tawney added. “It’s time for Congress to fulfill President Obama’s promise to make the Gulf ecosystem better than it was before the disaster by heeding a key recommendation from the bipartisan oil spill commission to dedicate 80 percent of the Clean Water Act penalties to long-term restoration of the Gulf.”

The oil spill commission’s recommendation echoed a recent government report by Navy Secretary and former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus. The Mabus report detailed the need for a long-term environmental restoration plan for the Gulf Coast to fulfill President Obama’s “commitment to the Gulf Coast that goes beyond responding to the crisis of the moment [including] multiple economic disasters and decades of environmental degradation that has led to disappearing wetlands and habitats.”