One year after the gulf, a plan to mitigate future spills

The Gulf disaster was undoubtedly the result of corporate negligence, but the fact is we could have been better prepared for a spill of this magnitude – with advanced technologies to reduce the damage and a streamlined process to coordinate the clean-up effort.

That’s why I recently reintroduced legislation, the Oil Pollution Research and Development Program Authorization Act (H.R. 1568), that would make oil spill response more effective by strengthening federal research and development (R&D) coordination.

Under current law, there are 14 agencies with some piece of jurisdiction over federal investments in oil spill prevention, response and mitigation R&D. H.R. 1568 would streamline this coordinating committee. 

Representatives from agencies with the greater expertise – the Coast Guard, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Interior — would lead the effort toward common solutions, while still allowing the other 10 agencies to play a lesser role. 

My bill would also double funding for federal oil spill R&D, which has remained flat since 1990, a step recommended by the president’s commission on the Gulf crisis. While industry continues to invest heavily in technology that allows them to drill in deeper and deeper waters, we are shortchanging technologies that help prevent, respond to and mitigate oil spills. As long as we continue to drill offshore, it’s imperative that we keep pace with investments that make offshore drilling as safe as possible.

I first introduced my legislation in 2009, in response to a relatively smaller spill in the San Francisco Bay. Throughout that ordeal, there was confusion about who was in charge and what technologies were available to assess and clean up the mess. We heard time and time again from first responders about the inadequacy of the tools at their disposal, which in many cases were no better than what was available in the wake of Exxon Valdez nearly 20 years earlier.

Had my bill become law in 2009, we would have had a more effective response to last year’s Gulf crisis. The bill eventually did pass the House last summer by a unanimous vote, but the Senate failed to act.

The anniversary of the Gulf spill is the perfect moment to focus our attention on these issues and reconsider my legislation. We can’t let excessive bureaucracy and red tape get in the way when disaster strikes.  We must make sure our clean-up technology is state-of-the-art. And we can’t wait for yet another devastating catastrophe before we act.