Centrist Dems still hoping for spill deal this year

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has floated the industry-supported idea of setting up a mutual insurance fund allowing all oil-and-gas producers to share the cost of future spills, while lifting the liability cap entirely for BP in the Gulf spill.
 
Landrieu’s idea would be to have the industrywide fund pay for spill costs of between $250 million and $10 billion, with individual companies responsible for the spill having to foot the bill themselves for costs above and below that dollar range. Companies would contribute to the fund based on how much they produce offshore and pay for bonus bids for production leases to help limit costs to small and midsized companies.
 
Sen. Mark Begich (D-Alaska) is working on a similar idea that “seems to be a little more based on the realities of the marketplace than Landrieu’s,” Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) told The Hill Tuesday.
 
He said it would have the industry-wide fund kick in at a lower dollar amount in order to further shield smaller companies from not being able to afford insurance.
 
Both the efforts by Landrieu and Begich are part of larger discussions that include Democratic leaders like Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (N.M.), Environment and Public Works Committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.). Menendez — a leading Senate critic of offshore drilling — was the lead author of the retroactive removal of the liability cap in a broader Democratic leadership oil-spill and energy plan that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has shelved until at least September due to opposition from Republicans and from within segments of his own party.
 
Democrats may be able to move closer to achieving consensus within their own ranks. “We’re getting closer and closer on it,” Begich said Tuesday before Reid punted the issue until after the upcoming five-week summer break.