II 

111TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3375 

To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to increase the cap on liability 

for economic damages resulting from an oil spill, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MAY 13, 2010 

Mr. VITTER (for himself, Mr. SESSIONS, Mr. WICKER, and Mr. LEMIEUX) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works 

A BILL 

To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to increase the 

cap on liability for economic damages resulting from 

an oil spill, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 

4 (a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 

5 ‘‘Oil Spill Response and Assistance Act’’. 

6 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents of 

7 this Act is as follows: 

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 

TITLE I—COMPENSATION 

Sec. 101. Emergency preparedness. 


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Sec. 102. Oil pollution liability and compensation. 

Sec. 103. Effective date. 

TITLE II—REPORTS 

Sec. 201. Reports regarding Gulf of Mexico oil spill. 

1 TITLE I—COMPENSATION 

2 SEC. 101. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Title IV of the Oil Pollution Act 

4 of 1990 (Public Law 101–380; 104 Stat. 509) is amended 

5 by adding at the end the following: 

6 ‘‘Subtitle D—Emergency 

7 Preparedness for Discharges 

8 ‘‘SEC. 4401. EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS. 

9 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 2 years after the 

10 date of enactment of this subtitle, the Secretary shall by 

11 regulation require the development and deployment of cer12 tain technology for use in the event of a breach or explo13 sion at, or a significant discharge of oil from, a deepwater 

14 port, offshore facility, or tank vessel (referred to in this 

15 section as a ‘covered event’). 

16 ‘‘(b) REQUIREMENTS.—The regulations shall re17 quire— 

18 ‘‘(1)(A) the development, for use in capping un19 derwater oil wells affected by a covered event, tech20 nology that is— 

21 ‘‘(i) capable of funneling discharges of oil 

22 from an underwater oil well to a containment 

23 vessel at the ocean surface; and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) effective at water depths at least 

2 2,000 feet deeper than the limits of oil and gas 

3 production on the outer Continental Shelf as of 

4 the date of enactment of this subtitle; and 

5 ‘‘(B) the purchase and deployment by the Sec6 retary of those engineered capping technologies in 

7 such number of locations throughout the United 

8 States (including the navigable waters), to be deter9 mined by the Secretary, as would permit deployment 

10 and use of the domes to respond to a covered event 

11 not later than 24 hours after the time at which the 

12 covered event occurred; 

13 ‘‘(2)(A) the development of flame-proof booms 

14 capable of functioning in the open ocean with waves 

15 of not more than 6 feet in height; and 

16 ‘‘(B) the purchase and deployment by the Sec17 retary of those booms at such locations and in such 

18 lengths or quantities as would permit, as determined 

19 by the Secretary— 

20 ‘‘(i) the use of the booms in response to a 

21 covered event not later than 24 hours after the 

22 time at which the covered event occurred; and 

23 ‘‘(ii) the complete surrounding of 100 

24 square miles of open ocean within that period 

25 of time; and 


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1 ‘‘(3) the development, and purchase and deploy2 ment by the Secretary, of remote operated vehicles 

3 for use in the open ocean that are— 

4 ‘‘(A) equipped with acoustic technology; 

5 ‘‘(B) capable of welding and cutting or 

6 torching below 15,000 feet of water; and 

7 ‘‘(C) stationed at such locations, as deter8 mined by the Secretary, as would enable the re9 mote operated vehicles to be available for use in 

10 an area affected by a covered event not later 

11 than 24 hours after the time at which the cov12 ered event occurred.’’. 

13 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 

14 the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. prec. 2701) is 

15 amended by inserting at the end of the items relating to 

16 title IV the following: 

‘‘Subtitle D—Emergency Preparedness for Discharges of Oil 

‘‘Sec. 4401. Emergency preparedness.’’. 

17 SEC. 102. OIL POLLUTION LIABILITY AND COMPENSATION. 

18 Section 1004 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 

19 U.S.C. 2704) is amended by striking subsection (a) and 

20 inserting the following: 

21 ‘‘(a) LIMITS.— 

22 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise pro23 vided in this section, subject to paragraph (2), the 

24 total of the liability of a responsible party under secVerDate Mar 15 2010 03:42 May 14, 2010 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3375.IS S3375

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1 tion 1002 and any removal costs incurred by, or on 

2 behalf of, the responsible party, with respect to each 

3 incident shall not exceed, as indexed for United 

4 States dollar inflation from the date of enactment of 

5 the Oil Spill Response and Assistance Act (as meas6 ured by the Consumer Price Index)— 

7 ‘‘(A) for a tank vessel, the greater of— 

8 ‘‘(i) with respect to a single-hull ves9 sel, including a single-hull vessel fitted 

10 with double sides only or a double bottom 

11 only, $6,000 per gross ton; 

12 ‘‘(ii) with respect to a vessel other 

13 than a vessel referred to in clause (i), 

14 $3,800 per gross ton; or 

15 ‘‘(iii)(I) with respect to a vessel great16 er than 3,000 gross tons that is— 

17 ‘‘(aa) a vessel described in clause 

18 (i), $44,000,000; or 

19 ‘‘(bb) a vessel described in clause 

20 (ii), $32,000,000; or 

21 ‘‘(II) with respect to a vessel of 3,000 

22 gross tons or less that is— 

23 ‘‘(aa) a vessel described in clause 

24 (i), $12,000,000; or 


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1 ‘‘(bb) a vessel described in clause 

2 (ii), $8,000,000; 

3 ‘‘(B) for any other vessel, $1,900 per gross 

4 ton or $1,600,000, whichever is greater; 

5 ‘‘(C) for an offshore facility except a deep6 water port, the total of all removal costs plus 

7 $150,000,000; and 

8 ‘‘(D) for any onshore facility and a deep9 water port, $700,000,000. 

10 ‘‘(2) ALTERNATIVE LIMITATION.—If the aggre11 gate amount of net after-tax profits of a responsible 

12 party generated during the 4 full financial reporting 

13 quarters preceding the date of an incident involving 

14 a vessel or facility described in paragraph (1) ex15 ceeds the limitation on liability for the category of 

16 incident described in that paragraph, the total of the 

17 liability of the responsible party under section 1002 

18 and any removal costs incurred by, or on behalf of, 

19 the responsible, with respect to each such incident 

20 shall not exceed, as indexed for United States dollar 

21 inflation from the date of enactment of the Oil Spill 

22 Response and Assistance Act (as measured by the 

23 Consumer Price Index), an amount equal to that ag24 gregate amount of those profits.’’. 


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1 SEC. 103. EFFECTIVE DATE. 

2 This title and the amendments made by this title take 

3 effect on April 15, 2010. 

4 TITLE II—REPORTS 

5 SEC. 201. REPORTS REGARDING GULF OF MEXICO OIL 

6 SPILL. 

7 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 

8 (1) HEAD OF AN APPROPRIATE FEDERAL AGEN9 CY.—The term ‘‘head of an appropriate Federal 

10 agency’’ means the head of a Federal agency that 

11 has carried out an activity with respect to the oil 

12 spill. 

13 (2) OIL SPILL.—The term ‘‘oil spill’’ means the 

14 oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in April 

15 2010. 

16 (b) STUDY.—As soon as practicable after the date of 

17 enactment of this Act, each head of an appropriate Fed18 eral agency shall carry out a study— 

19 (1) to examine the effectiveness of the coordina20 tion of actions carried out by the Federal Govern21 ment relating to the oil spill; and 

22 (2) to determine the success of each action car23 ried out by the Federal Government in response to 

24 the oil spill. 

25 (c) REPORT.—Not later than September 1, 2010, 

26 each head of an appropriate Federal Agency shall submit 


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1 to the appropriate committees of Congress a report that 

2 contains a description of— 

3 (1) the results of the study carried out under 

4 subsection (b); and 

5 (2) the effectiveness and success of each activity 

6 carried out by the Federal Government in response 

7 to the oil spill. 

Æ 


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