Let me welcome everyone to today’s hearing as we work to better protect our shores, our wildlife, our families—and our economy—from the deadly and toxic effects of oil spills.

 

This week is a fitting time for this hearing.

 

Right now, the Supreme Court is considering a final appeal by Exxon over its catastrophic oil spill in Valdez, Alaska.

 

Exxon made more than $40 billion last year.

 

Yet 19 years after the spill, Exxon is still fighting a damages award which would cost them about three weeks worth of profits.

 

While they continue to fight, the environment continues to suffer.  The Alaska coastline—as well as the local economy—is still reeling from the oil that remains.

 

In the aftermath of the Valdez disaster, Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990—one of the most powerful oil spill laws on the books.

 

As a Senator from a coastal state, I was proud to be an original co-sponsor of that law, which required mandatory response plans, double-hulling of tanker ships, and provided a fair way to ensure spills were cleaned up.

 

But in 2004, a single-hull oil tanker spilled more than 260,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River, along the New Jersey-Pennsylvania border.

 

That spill devastated our environment and shut down some of the busiest ports in the country.

 

So two years ago, I worked with this Committee to update the Oil Pollution Act by nearly tripling the liability limits which polluters must pay for spills from single-hull tankers and doubling liability limits for non-tank vessels.

 

But while the number of oil spills from tankers has declined, spills continue to occur from fuel tanks of cargo and fishing vessels.

 

Late last year, San Francisco Bay was deluged with 53,000 gallons of fuel oil from a ship that was not an oil tanker.

 

These and other recent spills make it clear we must do more to protect our shores.

 

Fuel tanks on container ships can hold up to four million gallons of oil, which is more than some oil tankers carry.

 

The international community has already put in place better ship design requirements, and it’s time for the United States to catch up.

 

We need to use the Coast Guard’s vessel tracking services to help prevent collisions and improve our response to oil spills.

 

We need to look at how the Coast Guard licenses mariners, including what medical standards are used to determine their fitness to operate these vessels.

 

And we need to increase federal oil spill liability limits for ships that we know have higher risks of causing devastating spills.

 

Today, I am introducing legislation to address these needs—because the environment and our economy depend on our work to prevent another major catastrophe.

 

I look forward to working with my colleagues on this and other legislation to better protect our shores.