OLYMPIA —Oil-spill response legislation at the statehouse has split into two bills tackling separate issues.
On Monday, the House passed a bill to improve Washington’s ability to deal with a monster-sized oil spill.
That House bill was almost a carbon copy of a companion bill in the Senate.
But on Tuesday, the Senate voted 46-3 in favor of a radically changed version of that companion bill.
The Senate bill make the company responsible for an oil spill legally liable for damages to people, property, nature and the economy resulting from the cleanup efforts.
Until recently, the two companion bills — introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-San Juan Islands, and in the House by Rep. Christine Rolfes, D- Bainbridge Island — were almost identical.
Rolfes’ bill — passed on a 62-35 party-line vote —would increase penalties charged of companies responsible for oil spills; upgrade the technological requirements of oil tankers; and require the oil shipping industry to equip and train fishing vessels that could help out in an oil cleanup.
Ranker’s original bill had the same language, but he decided to revamp his bill to address the issue of who is liable for monetary damages associated with cleanup.
When last year’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill was tackled, cleaning crews used 300 million gallons of dispersant, which damaged the Gulf’s shoreline’s ecology and economy — without British Petroleum being legally liable for the cleanup damages, Ranker said.
If an oil spill cleanup harms Washington’s shoreline or people, Ranker wants that liability nailed down.
Ranker decided to rewrite his bill so the cleanup liability issues and the prevention-and-response issue are tackled separately. that way disputes in one matter would not affect resolutions in the other matter.
Rolfes’ bill now goes to the Senate, wile Ranker’s bill goes to the House.
Senator splits his oil spill cleanup bill in two
