[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5356 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5356

To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to increase the cap on liability 
    for economic damages resulting from an oil spill, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 20, 2010

    Mr. Blunt (for himself, Mr. Miller of Florida, and Mr. Bonner, 
 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 increase the cap on liability 
    for economic damages resulting from an oil spill, and for other 
                               purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) Short Title.--This Act may be cited as the ``Oil Spill Response 
and Assistance Act''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
                         TITLE I--COMPENSATION

Sec. 101. Emergency preparedness.
Sec. 102. Oil pollution liability and compensation.
Sec. 103. Effective date.
                           TITLE II--REPORTS

Sec. 201. Reports regarding Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

                         TITLE I--COMPENSATION

SEC. 101. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS.

    (a) In General.--Title IV of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (Public 
Law 101-380; 104 Stat. 509) is amended by adding at the end the 
following:

          ``Subtitle D--Emergency Preparedness for Discharges

``SEC. 4401. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS.

    ``(a) In General.--Not later than 2 years after the date of 
enactment of this subtitle, the Secretary shall by regulation require 
the development and deployment of certain technology for use in the 
event of a breach or explosion at, or a significant discharge of oil 
from, a deepwater port, offshore facility, or tank vessel (referred to 
in this section as a `covered event').
    ``(b) Requirements.--The regulations shall require--
            ``(1)(A) the development, for use in capping underwater oil 
        wells affected by a covered event, technology that is--
                    ``(i) capable of funneling discharges of oil from 
                an underwater oil well to a containment vessel at the 
                ocean surface; and
                    ``(ii) effective at water depths at least 2,000 
                feet deeper than the limits of oil and gas production 
                on the outer Continental Shelf as of the date of 
                enactment of this subtitle; and
            ``(B) the purchase and deployment by the Secretary of those 
        engineered capping technologies in such number of locations 
        throughout the United States (including the navigable waters), 
        to be determined by the Secretary, as would permit deployment 
        and use of the domes to respond to a covered event not later 
        than 24 hours after the time at which the covered event 
        occurred;
            ``(2)(A) the development of flame-proof booms capable of 
        functioning in the open ocean with waves of not more than 6 
        feet in height; and
            ``(B) the purchase and deployment by the Secretary of those 
        booms at such locations and in such lengths or quantities as 
        would permit, as determined by the Secretary--
                    ``(i) the use of the booms in response to a covered 
                event not later than 24 hours after the time at which 
                the covered event occurred; and
                    ``(ii) the complete surrounding of 100 square miles 
                of open ocean within that period of time; and
            ``(3) the development, and purchase and deployment by the 
        Secretary, of remote operated vehicles for use in the open 
        ocean that are--
                    ``(A) equipped with acoustic technology;
                    ``(B) capable of welding and cutting or torching 
                below 15,000 feet of water; and
                    ``(C) stationed at such locations, as determined by 
                the Secretary, as would enable the remote operated 
                vehicles to be available for use in an area affected by 
                a covered event not later than 24 hours after the time 
                at which the covered event occurred.''.
    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents for the Oil Pollution 
Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. prec. 2701) is amended by inserting at the end 
of the items relating to title IV the following:

       ``Subtitle D--Emergency Preparedness for Discharges of Oil

``Sec. 4401. Emergency preparedness.''.

SEC. 102. OIL POLLUTION LIABILITY AND COMPENSATION.

    Section 1004 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2704) is 
amended by striking subsection (a) and inserting the following:
    ``(a) Limits.--
            ``(1) In general.--Except as otherwise provided in this 
        section, subject to paragraph (2), the total of the liability 
        of a responsible party under section 1002 and any removal costs 
        incurred by, or on behalf of, the responsible party, with 
        respect to each incident shall not exceed, as indexed for 
        United States dollar inflation from the date of enactment of 
        the Oil Spill Response and Assistance Act (as measured by the 
        Consumer Price Index)--
                    ``(A) for a tank vessel, the greater of--
                            ``(i) with respect to a single-hull vessel, 
                        including a single-hull vessel fitted with 
                        double sides only or a double bottom only, 
                        $6,000 per gross ton;
                            ``(ii) with respect to a vessel other than 
                        a vessel referred to in clause (i), $3,800 per 
                        gross ton; or
                            ``(iii)(I) with respect to a vessel greater 
                        than 3,000 gross tons that is--
                                    ``(aa) a vessel described in clause 
                                (i), $44,000,000; or
                                    ``(bb) a vessel described in clause 
                                (ii), $32,000,000; or
                            ``(II) with respect to a vessel of 3,000 
                        gross tons or less that is--
                                    ``(aa) a vessel described in clause 
                                (i), $12,000,000; or
                                    ``(bb) a vessel described in clause 
                                (ii), $8,000,000;
                    ``(B) for any other vessel, $1,900 per gross ton or 
                $1,600,000, whichever is greater;
                    ``(C) for an offshore facility except a deepwater 
                port, the total of all removal costs plus $150,000,000; 
                and
                    ``(D) for any onshore facility and a deepwater 
                port, $700,000,000.
            ``(2) Alternative limitation.--If the aggregate amount of 
        net after-tax profits of a responsible party generated during 
        the 4 full financial reporting quarters preceding the date of 
        an incident involving a vessel or facility described in 
        paragraph (1) exceeds the limitation on liability for the 
        category of incident described in that paragraph, the total of 
        the liability of the responsible party under section 1002 and 
        any removal costs incurred by, or on behalf of, the 
        responsible, with respect to each such incident shall not 
        exceed, as indexed for United States dollar inflation from the 
        date of enactment of the Oil Spill Response and Assistance Act 
        (as measured by the Consumer Price Index), an amount equal to 
        that aggregate amount of those profits.''.

SEC. 103. EFFECTIVE DATE.

    This title and the amendments made by this title take effect on 
April 15, 2010.

                           TITLE II--REPORTS

SEC. 201. REPORTS REGARDING GULF OF MEXICO OIL SPILL.

    (a) Definitions.--In this section:
            (1) Head of an appropriate federal agency.--The term ``head 
        of an appropriate Federal agency'' means the head of a Federal 
        agency that has carried out an activity with respect to the oil 
        spill.
            (2) Oil spill.--The term ``oil spill'' means the oil spill 
        that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in April 2010.
    (b) Study.--As soon as practicable after the date of enactment of 
this Act, each head of an appropriate Federal agency shall carry out a 
study--
            (1) to examine the effectiveness of the coordination of 
        actions carried out by the Federal Government relating to the 
        oil spill; and
            (2) to determine the success of each action carried out by 
        the Federal Government in response to the oil spill.
    (c) Report.--Not later than September 1, 2010, each head of an 
appropriate Federal Agency shall submit to the appropriate committees 
of Congress a report that contains a description of--
            (1) the results of the study carried out under subsection 
        (b); and
            (2) the effectiveness and success of each activity carried 
        out by the Federal Government in response to the oil spill.
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