Oil Spill Commission Suggests Raising Liability Cap

The special panel created by President Obama to investigate the causes of the BP oil spill released a final report on Tuesday that recommends tightening regulation of the oil industry.

Among its suggestions, the panel urged Congress to raise the amount of money oil companies are required to pay when they are found liable for damages caused by spills.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) applauded that suggestion, and announced that he would reintroduce legislation he authored last year that would raise the spill liability cap from its current $75 million to $10 billion.

“We cannot continue to coddle oil companies by protecting them when they destroy livelihoods – that’s not a privilege given to any individual or small business,” Menendez said on Tuesday. “Holding oil companies accountable for the damage they cause not only protects taxpayers and coastal families, but it also gives those corporations incentive to actually focus on the safety of their drilling operations.”

Menendez’s Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act was rejected in the Senate last September.