Murkowski advocates slimmer spill bill

As Senate Democrats look to expand a package of oil-spill and energy provisions that has been pushed to at least September, one leading Senate Republican is advocating a further slimmed down package that responds only to the Gulf of Mexico and future spills.

“I think you’ve got to start with something smaller,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources ranking member Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said in an interview with The Hill.
 
{mosads}This includes dropping relatively non-controversial language in a broader Democratic leadership package that is aimed at boosting trucks powered by natural gas and increasing residential energy efficiency.

“If we can just focus on what it is we have to do for this specific issue rather than trying to solve all the problems in the world under one bill,” she said. “I think we’ve got to scale it back and I think if you do scale it back … I think we can do it.”
 
Murkowski’s comments highlight competing pressures on Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who faces discontent in both parties for different reasons with a package responding to the oil spill.
 
Some Democrats are clamoring to broaden the energy provisions in that package to include a renewable electricity production mandate, such as one that was included in an energy bill passed last year by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee — which Murkowski supported.
 
That is believed to be one reason why Reid Tuesday punted debate on competing Democratic and Republican oil-spill response plans until at least September.
 
But another reason is lack of support from Republicans and some Democrats over efforts by Reid and other Democratic leaders to retroactively eliminate liability caps for oil-and-gas producers, in the name of holding BP fully accountable.

Oil-state and centrist Democrats — led by Mark Begich (Alaska) and Mary Landrieu (La.) — are trying to find a compromise that would set up a mutual insurance fund allowing for all oil-and-gas companies to pool together to address a spill. The purpose is to try to protect small and midsized producers from being priced out of the offshore drilling market because they would not be able to afford the insurance needed for a project.
 
Begich late Wednesday morning told reporters he hoped to release details of a compromise later in the day. But his spokeswoman said he was still in discussions with Landrieu and may release something Thursday.
 
Murkowski said she has not sat down with Landrieu or Begich but that the idea was similar to a bill she offered that also aimed to model oil-and-gas liability sharing from what is done in the nuclear industry. Murkowski said she will work with those like Landrieu and Begich, “who are looking to find how to reach that sweet spot on an issue that is clearly … critical to the industry.”