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Senator Barbara Boxer wants to lift cap on liability for offshore oil producers
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Senator Barbara Boxer wants to lift cap on liability for offshore oil producers
Senator Barbara Boxer wants to lift cap on liability for offshore oil producers
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer spent election night in Washington, D.C. Just hours after she won the Democratic nomination for a fourth term, Boxer chaired a Senate hearing on raising the liability cap for oil companies.
Under current law, the most BP will have to pay in economic and natural resources damages is $75 million. Congress is considering several bills that would lift the cap.
Republican Senator Lamar Alexander from Tennessee suggested adopting the nuclear industry model in which the entire industry is held financially responsible for anyone else’s accident.
But Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California pointed out the shortcomings of that approach. "The taxpayers are on the hook when the liability goes over $10 billion," she says, "and then the taxpayers have to come in and fund it."
Republican Senator David Vitter of Louisiana said there was GOP support for just lifting the cap on BP. But Democrats say that’s unfair to BP. They prefer lifting the liability cap on all offshore oil producers.
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