[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 113 (Thursday, July 29, 2010)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6510-S6511]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CLEAN ENERGY JOBS AND OIL COMPANY ACCOUNTABILITY ACT

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I commend the majority leader for 
introducing the Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act. 
This bill, which I am proud to support, is a timely and targeted 
response to the continuing devastation in the Gulf of Mexico, a 
catastrophe which began 100 days ago. The Senate must move quickly to 
address one of the most immediate and pressing problems facing our 
Nation and to find meaningful ways to prevent similar disasters in the 
future. The American people rightly expect that the lessons learned 
from this disaster will be heeded.
  This legislation addresses several issues brought to light in the 
spill's aftermath. It will ensure the fair treatment of victims like 
the families of the 11 Americans who were killed in the explosion on 
the Deepwater Horizon oil rig. It will encourage responsible corporate 
behavior and provide meaningful criminal penalties for environmental 
crimes. It will ensure that British Petroleum and those responsible for 
this disaster and any responsible party associated with an oilspill at 
an offshore facility in the future are held fully accountable and 
liable for all of the damages the oilspill causes and that the American 
taxpayer is not left with the bill. It is a response that will help the 
people of the gulf begin the long process of restoring what they have 
lost. And for those who cannot recover what they have lost, it will 
help them as they move forward. These matters, and others, have been 
the subject of several recent hearings in the Senate Judiciary 
Committee.
  Senators from several committees, including the Judiciary Committee, 
have made important contributions to this bill. I am pleased that the 
majority leader asked for and listened to the calls of members of the 
Judiciary Committee to make sure that a significant part of this 
legislative response was focused squarely on the needs of the victims 
of this disaster and that the Federal laws designed to provide justice 
for wrongdoing are fair.
  I thank the majority leader for including two pieces of legislation I 
have introduced--the Survivor's Equality Act, and the Environmental 
Crimes Enforcement Act. I am confident that, when enacted, both of 
these provisions will help victims and promote responsibility and 
safety within the energy industry.
  The Survivor's Equality Act would remedy profound unfairness in our 
maritime tort laws. The enactment of this provision will end the 
unequal treatment under the law for those who are killed at sea. The 
Death on the High Seas Act, which is one of the few remedies for these 
families to seek justice, provides compensation only for pecuniary 
losses associated with a wrongful death. This involves a cold 
calculation of a victim's monetary worth to his or her family and 
nothing more. And if an individual who is killed has no dependents, he 
or she is entitled to very little, yet the loss to a parent or a 
sibling is no less tragic. The current Federal maritime law does not 
recognize the profound losses associated with the death of a loved 
one--the suffering of a widow who has lost her husband; a parent who 
has lost a child; or a child who will no longer have a parent to guide 
them through life. In modern America, it is simply unfair to have a 
different standard of justice for those killed at sea than those killed 
on land.
  Another important provision in the pending bill is the Environmental 
Crimes Enforcement Act which would bolster the enforcement of 
environmental crimes. Often in the case of serious environmental 
catastrophes the companies that caused the disaster may be guilty of 
committing environmental crimes. These wrongdoers must be held 
accountable for their criminal acts, and they, rather than American 
taxpayers, should pay for the damage. The Environmental Crimes 
Enforcement Act is crafted to deter environmental crime, protect and 
compensate its victims, and encourage accountability among corporate 
actors. This would deter schemes by big oil corporations and by others 
that hurt hard-working Americans and their local economies and that 
damage the environment by increasing sentences for environmental 
crimes. All too often, corporations treat fines and monetary penalties 
as merely a cost of doing business, to be factored against profits. To 
deter criminal behavior by corporations, it is important to have laws 
resulting in prison time, and this bill would appropriately raise 
sentences for environmental crimes so they are comparable with 
sentences for other serious crimes. Nothing gets the attention of 
corporate decisionmakers like the prospect of serving time behind bars.
  This provision would also help victims of environmental crime--the 
people who lose their livelihoods, their communities, and even their 
loved ones--reclaim their natural and economic resources by making 
restitution mandatory for criminal Clean Water Act violations.
  Other members of the Judiciary Committee have made important 
contributions to the majority leader's bill. Senator Whitehouse's 
legislation to reverse the Supreme Court's decision in Exxon v. Baker 
is included in this package. When this provision is enacted, the 
Supreme Court's arbitrary cap on punitive damages in maritime cases 
will be erased. Instead, with the appropriate measure of liability 
returned to a jury to decide, corporations engaged in dangerous and 
environmentally risky work will think twice about endangering the 
safety of their workers and the ecosystem.
  Senator Schumer's legislation to repeal the antiquated Limitation of 
Shipowners' Liability Act has also been included. This statute limits a 
vessel owner's total liability to the value of the vessel after an 
accident has occurred. Updating this arcane law will foreclose the type 
of conduct we witnessed in this case when Transocean, the owner of the 
Deepwater Horizon, claimed its liability should be limited to the value 
of the Deepwater Horizon as it sat on the bottom of the gulf. That 
defies common sense and propriety. Congress cannot control a 
corporation's desire to evade its responsibilities, but the American 
people, through their Congress, need not allow a law that invites such 
behavior to stand.
  Another important provision in this legislative package is the 
amendment

[[Page S6511]]

to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, LWCF, Act of 1965 to provide 
for full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This comes at 
a time when the purposes of this program are keenly important to 
communities across the country that are facing escalating development 
pressures, while striving to maintain their focus on improving the 
quality of life in their communities.
  In my own home State of Vermont, LWCF has led to the conservation of 
many valued areas--from the Green Mountain National Forest, which 
stretches over nearly two-thirds of the length of Vermont across a 
diverse landscape, to our Missisquoi National Wildlife Refuge near the 
Canadian border, to the Appalachian Trail that winds through the State, 
and to the stunning Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park 
in Woodstock, VT. In recent years, LWCF has also helped to fund the 
Forest Legacy Program, which has permanently conserved more than 60,000 
acres of forestland in Vermont and nearly 2 million acres nationwide. I 
am concerned, though, with how this new LWCF language has been drafted 
and worry that it could restrict our ability to allocate funds for the 
federal purposes, such as the Forest Legacy Program and other land 
acquisition programs that assist in preserving, developing, and 
assuring accessibility to quality outdoor recreation resources and 
important natural resources. I hope that I can work with the majority 
leader and other supporters of these land conservation programs moving 
forward to ensure that LWCF meets the outdoor conservation and 
recreation needs of the American people.
  These investments not only protect crucial and delicate ecosystems 
and landscapes that are relied upon by countless communities and by 
indigenous wildlife; they also offer important recreation opportunities 
for Vermonters and visitors from other States to enjoy these beautiful 
places for our campgrounds, hiking trails, skiing, snow shoeing, 
snowmobiling, and fishing. It made good economic and environmental 
sense in 1965 and it remains good sense today to reinvest a small 
fraction of Federal leasing revenues in permanent natural resource 
protection. A healthier environment and more recreational opportunities 
will not only promote health and quality of life but also have a 
positive impact on our economy. More than 500 million people visit 
national parks and monuments, wildlife refuges, and recreational sites 
each year, contributing to family paychecks and to local economies.
  LWCF is a visionary and bipartisan program. Since its creation in 
1964, it has conserved more than 5 million acres of land and water 
across the country. These are iconic American landscapes like the 
redwood forests, the Grand Canyon National Park, the Appalachian 
National Scenic Trail, the Great Smoky Mountains, the Denali National 
Park and Preserve, the Everglades, and our own Green Mountain National 
Forest in Vermont. This is a program that touches every American. Even 
those who have not been able to visit a national park or forest likely 
have enjoyed one of the many urban parks, picnic areas, playgrounds, 
open trails, or open spaces that LWCF has been the key to providing and 
protecting--places prized by everyday Americans across the land as 
places for recreation and so many other uses.
  I am proud to have led the bipartisan efforts in the Senate to build 
support for the fund, whose budget is overseen by the Interior 
Appropriations Subcommittee. I have sought, with bipartisan support, 
increased funding for both the Federal and State sides of the program 
and the Forest Legacy Program, another successful and popular 
conservation initiative that I was gratified to be able to launch when 
I chaired the Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry. 
Regrettably, securing adequate resources for LWCF has always been 
difficult, and LWCF has only been fully funded once in its history.
  I must also voice some additional concerns and reservations that I 
have about the LWCF language in this bill regarding the role of the 
Appropriations Committee. I hope that we can ensure that Congress, 
through the direction of the Appropriations Committee, will still have 
control in establishing how the Land and Water Conservation Fund is 
allocated among the State and Federal purposes and the various agencies 
within. I ask that the majority leader commit to working with the 
Interior Appropriations Subcommittee chairman to develop language that 
guarantees the role of the Congress in appropriating and directing 
these funds rather than leaving all control in the administration. I 
trust that we can find a way to fully fund LWCF and maintain the 
congressional involvement through the appropriations process.
  I applaud the majority leader for including this provision in the 
bill and appreciate both his support and that of the chairman of the 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Bingaman, for leading 
this effort to protect America's most treasured landscapes, to 
strengthen our local economies, and to ensure the future of our 
natural, cultural, and recreation heritage.
  Now I would be remiss if I did not mention another program that has 
faced the same difficulty receiving its full authorized amount. That 
would be the Historic Preservation Fund, which also receives funding 
from the Outer Continental Shelf oil lease revenues but has rarely been 
appropriated more than half of the authorized level of $150 million. I 
hope that I can work with my colleagues to solve this issue for the 
Historic Preservation Fund, just as we are trying to do for the Land 
and Water Conservation Fund.
  This bill is also an important step forward for the Home Star 
Program, a bipartisan home efficiency effort that Congressman Welch has 
helped lead in the House, that will lower consumers' energy and water 
costs while creating jobs. As Vermont has shown time and again, energy 
efficiency retrofits work. They not only create quality jobs and save 
homeowners money on their energy and water bills, but they also reduce 
our dependence on foreign oil and cut down on harmful carbon emissions.
  The Clean Energy Jobs and Oil Company Accountability Act would reduce 
our dependence on foreign oil by making investments in vehicles that 
run on electricity and natural gas. The lack of fuel diversity in our 
transportation sector makes our economy and American consumers 
particularly vulnerable to increases in oil prices, and I am pleased 
that this bill invests in other transportation alternatives that will 
also bring down our carbon emissions.
  I am sorely disappointed in Washington's inability so far to overcome 
the entrenched power of special interests by acting on comprehensive 
climate change remedies. This bill is not a substitute for that, but it 
does signifies several constructive steps forward.
  I am proud to stand with Majority Leader Reid in support of the 
victims of the greatest environmental disaster on American shores. But 
the legislative package he has assembled will do more than just bring 
justice to these victims. It will save consumers and taxpayers money, 
create jobs throughout the country, and move our country toward a 
safer, more responsible energy industry. It is a commonsense solution. 
I hope it will receive bipartisan support.

                          ____________________