In the wake of the explosion and subsequent oil spill at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig off Louisiana, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson called for the Senate Commerce Committee to open an investigation into the disaster.
Nelson also called for the Obama administration to indefinitely halt its plans for expanding offshore drilling operations and the administration agreed.
“Questions about the practices of the oil industry raised in the wake of this still-unfolding incident require that you postpone indefinitely plans for expanded offshore drilling operations,” Nelson wrote.
Yesterday, May 4, 2010, Nelson sent a letter to the Department of Interior’s Acting Investigator General Mary Kendall asking that she determine whether the oil and gas industry exerted influence over regulators when, from 2000 through 2004, oil companies were basically allowed to select back-up systems to prevent a blowout.
He also introduced, along with Senators Menendez and Lautenberg, legislation that would raise a responsible party’s liability cap for economic damages (such as lost business revenues from fishing and tourism, natural resources damages or lost local tax revenues) from $75 million to $10 billion.
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