BP Gulf Oil Spill 1-Year Anniversary; Congress Yet to Pass Any Major Laws On Oil and Gas Drilling

April 20, 2011 -- A year after the BP oil spill ravaged the Gulf of Mexico, Congress has passed no major bills on oil and gas drilling.

More than 100 different measures have been introduced. Dozens of hearings have been held. But nothing has been done to make offshore drilling any safer, hold BP accountable or prevent another disaster in the future, congressional lawmakers admit.

It has been a year of a lot of talk, but little action.

Senate Democrats, led in the spring of 2010 by Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, wanted to push an ambitious climate change bill that included cap-and-trade language. Faced with stiff opposition from Republicans, the Democrats scaled back the effort, opting instead for a narrower bill that included specific measures directed at the BP oil spill and some modest energy-efficiency proposals.

The Democrats' bill would have revamped offshore oil drilling rules in an attempt to prevent repeat occurrences of the BP spill and removed the $75 million liability cap for damages incurred from the spill. It would have also invested in the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, legislated the Home Star program to boost energy efficient houses and promoted natural-gas vehicles in an attempt to reduce dependency on foreign oil.

Republicans argued that the proposal went too far, pointing to the removal of the liability cap for oil companies, a stance that was even seconded by some oil-state Democrats.

Reid postponed a Senate vote on the scaled-back bill last August until after the summer recess. But the legislation never made any headway, with lawmakers focused instead on the congressional midterm elections and later dedicating the winter's lame-duck session to debating an extension of the Bush-era tax cuts, the START nuclear treaty with Russia, repeal of "don't ask, don't tell" and the DREAM Act immigration measure.

While the Democratic-led House passed a few bills to address the spill last year, the measures eventually stalled in the Senate, failing to gain enough traction to overcome the upper chamber's 60-vote threshold.