link to the $1.5 billion collected for oil disasters, pretty please.
Here you go, the Feds want to raise the current 8 cent per barrel tax to 40 cents, claiming that the current oil spill will exhaust the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. (They haven't spent the $1.5B btw - they are just claiming it won't cover all of the damage - the same damage they are saying BP should cover.)
The existing tax rate of 8 cents has already financed a $1.5 billion liability trust fund, which is nowhere near enough to pay for the damages. The cost of the spill, resulting from an offshore oil rig disaster off the coast of Louisiana that killed 11 workers in April, could exceed $14 billion, according to the bill.
"[The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund] is essentially exhausted, assuming that all the funds are needed for this spill," said Tezak.
The trust fund covers damage costs -- calculated separately from clean-up costs which the responsible companies must pay for. The damages in the Gulf of Mexico are both environmental, including the effects on wildlife, and economic, like the losses suffered by the fishing and tourism industries.
House to consider raising 8-cent oil tax to 32 cents - May. 24, 2010
Uses of the Fund
With the consolidation of these funds and the collection of a tax on the petroleum industry, the Fund increased to $1 billion. Fund uses were delineated by OPA to include:
* Removal costs incurred by the Coast Guard and EPA
* State access for removal activities;
* Payments to federal, state, and Indian tribe trustees to conduct natural resource damage assessments and restorations;
* Payment of claims for uncompensated removal costs and damages;
* Research and development; and
* Other specific appropriations.
The Energy Policy Act of 2005 increased the maximum size of the Fund to $2.7 billion.
Structure of the Fund
The OSLTF has two major components.
1. The Emergency Fund is available for Federal On-Scene Coordinators (FOSCs) to respond to discharges and for federal trustees to initiate natural resource damage assessments. The Emergency Fund is a recurring $50 million available to the President annually.
2. The remaining Principal Fund balance is used to pay claims and to fund appropriations by Congress to Federal agencies to administer the provisions of OPA and support research and development.
The Emergency Fund
To ensure rapid, effective response to oil spills, the President has the authority to make available--without Congressional appropriation--up to $50 million each year to fund removal activities and initiate NRDAs. Funds not used in a fiscal year are available until expended. To the extent that $50 million is inadequate, the Maritime Transportation Security Act of 2002 granted authority to advance up to $100 million from the Principal Fund to fund removal activities. (This provision has not been utilized to date.)
A core mission of the NPFC is to administer the disbursement and ensure proper use of the Emergency Fund, 24 hours a day, every day, so that the FOSC can immediately respond to a discharge or monitor prompt and effective cleanup activities by the responsible party (RP). the Emergency Fund can be used by FOSCs to cover expenses associated with mitigating the threat of an oil spill, as well as the costs of oil spill containment, countermeasures, cleanup, and disposal activities. While the use of the OSLTF is most closely associated with discharges from ships, it has increasingly been used for discharges at industrial or onshore oil storage and production facilities.
The Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund (OSLTF)
The President has access to immediate allocation of emergency funds. If these had been spent on booms, dredging, and berms, the actual damage would be less than we are now facing.
