[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 633 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 633

    To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to clarify the financial 
          responsibility requirements for offshore facilities.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            January 23, 1995

  Mr. Hayes introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
             Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to clarify the financial 
          responsibility requirements for offshore facilities.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. CLARIFICATION OF FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS.

    Section 1016(c)(1) of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 
2716(c)(1)) is amended to read as follows:
            ``(1) In general.--
                    ``(A) Evidence of financial responsibility 
                required.--Except as provided in paragraph (2), each 
                responsible party with respect to an offshore facility 
                located seaward of the United States coastline that 
                is--
                            ``(i) used for drilling for, producing, or 
                        processing oil; or
                            ``(ii) has the capacity to transport, 
                        store, transfer, or otherwise handle more than 
                        1,000 barrels of oil at any one time,
                shall establish and maintain evidence of financial 
                responsibility in the amount required under 
                subparagraph (B) or (C), as applicable.
                    ``(B) Amount required, generally.--Except as 
                provided in subparagraph (C), for purposes of 
                subparagraph (A) the amount of financial responsibility 
                required is $35,000,000.
                    ``(C) Greater amount.--If the Secretary determines 
                that an amount of financial responsibility greater than 
                the amount required by subparagraph (B) is appropriate 
                for an offshore facility, based on an assessment of the 
                risk posed by the facility that includes consideration 
                of the relative operational, environmental, human 
                health, and other risks posed by the quantity and 
                quality of oil that is transported, stored, 
                transferred, or otherwise handled by the facility, for 
                purposes of subparagraph (A) the amount of financial 
                responsibility required is equal to the lesser of--
                            ``(i) the amount of liability to which the 
                        responsible party could be subjected under 
                        section 1004(a) with respect to the facility in 
                        a case in which the responsible party would be 
                        entitled to limit liability under that section, 
                        as determined by the Secretary; or
                            ``(ii) $75,000,000.
                    ``(D) Multiple facilities.--In a case in which a 
                person is the responsible party for more than one 
                facility subject to this subsection, evidence of 
                financial responsibility need be established only to 
                meet the maximum liability applicable to the facility 
                having the greatest maximum liability.''.
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