Fmr. Sen. Johnston on Platts Energy Wk TV: Go Slow on Oil Spill Laws

Washington - August 9, 2010

Congress should wait to pass legislation responding to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill rather than rushing new measures through in September, a former Senate energy leader said Sunday on an all-energy television program Platts Energy Week.

Fear and haste would likely lead lawmakers to pass a measure that ignores the complexities of the oil industry, said Senator J. Bennett Johnston (D-La), former chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee who is now an energy lobbyist in Washington. Johnston’s comments are available at this link. The full program is available online at www.plattsenergyweektv.com.

“I hope [we] can pass meaningful good legislation that can get us back started drilling in the gulf ... and not do it under the fear and emergency and emotional atmosphere we had before,” said Johnston. “This is very complicated stuff: How to ensure and protect the public so the companies pay, so that you’re certain to get it all cleaned up [and] have the right oversight,” he explained.

House lawmakers passed legislation last month that would require oil companies to file new drilling safety plans, remove liability caps on the amount oil companies would have to pay resulting from an oil spill, and ban new drilling permits for companies with chronic worker safety and environmental regulations.

Some observers say Senate Democrats have already largely given up on plans to curb greenhouse gas emissions, a priority among the environmental community and liberal groups, and could just as easily close out the year without passing spill legislation.

Others, such as Daniel Weiss, senior fellow with the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank based in Washington, who was a panelist on Platts Energy Week, look at history as an important key driver. He said oil still washing ashore from the Exxon Valdez tanker spill 20 years ago is a clear sign the impacts of oil spills are felt for a long time and new regulations must be implemented as soon as possible. “We have to make sure this never happens again,” Weiss told program host Bill Loveless.

Government officials estimated last week that the Deepwater Horizon disaster poured 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf. Shortly after the spill began April 20, lawmakers began drafting plans to increase the amount oil companies would have to pay out for future spills, increase oversight by federal regulators and set new safety standards for the operation of offshore drilling rigs.

James Carafano, an expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation, Platts Energy Week’s Bill Loveless told that lawmakers, and the Obama administration, should focus, however, on lifting an offshore drilling moratorium which is hurting residents along the Gulf Coast.

“The region is heavily dependent on oil jobs, they feel like they’re getting a double whammy: on the one hand they‘ve been damaged and then they're losing all this money,” Carafano said.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid introduced legislation last month that would place new limits on how soon offshore oil regulators could work for the companies they oversee after ending their public service, and set new safety requirements for offshore drilling companies, along with new incentives to spur the development of renewable energy sources.

But wrangling over the amount oil companies would have payout in legal damages resulting from future spills, among other sticking points, has kept Democrats from getting the 60 votes they need in the Senate to pass any spill response.

Representatives and many Senators – including Reid – will be spending much of their time between now and the November elections campaigning in their home states to keep their jobs in Congress.

The Sunday television program also explored what’s ahead for state utility regulation. Click on this link to hear the discussion by Charles Gray, executive director of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners, regarding the challenges state regulators face in the wake of the failed climate change legislation.

“Energy in the Land of the Rising Sun” was another topic on the weekend all-energy program. Fresh off her trip from Japan, Julia Hamm, chief executive officer for the Solar Electric Power Association, explained to Bill Loveless what the U.S. could learn from the world's third largest generator of solar energy. View full interview at this link.

Platts Energy Week airs weekly at 8 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday mornings on W*USA 9 TV in Washington, D.C. and is available online at www.plattsenergyweektv.com shortly thereafter. The program follows an interview format featuring guests from the Obama administration, Congress, government agencies, think tanks, the investment community and the energy industry. Host Bill Loveless, long-time chief editor of Platts’ Inside Energy, brings nearly three decades of energy journalism experience to the anchor chair.

Program information, special news features, advertising contacts and more can be found at www.plattsenergyweektv.com. Guest booking and related inquiries should be addressed to this email box: plattsenergyweektv@platts.com.

Platts Energy Week is produced by Platts, the world’s leading source of information and intelligence on energy and related commodities and a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies [NYSE: MHP], and W*USA 9TV, the Washington, D.C., CBS affiliate and flagship television station of Gannett Co. [NYSE: GCI]. While the program is U.S. focused and produced in Washington, it reflects the global vantage point of Platts, whose correspondents are stationed in such major capitals as London, Dubai, Singapore, Tokyo and Moscow.

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