Political Quotes

“I rise to introduce legislation requiring BP and other oil companies to set aside ample funding in an escrow account controlled--not by the company but by the Federal Government-- to address the damage and claims from a major catastrophic oil spill like the current Gulf of Mexico spill. Twenty-one years ago, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez ran aground, gushing an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil into Alaska waters. This was the worst oil spill in American history, with oil hitting 1,300 miles of shoreline and killing hundreds of thousands of birds and marine mammals. Thousands of hard-working Alaskans, just like the residents of the Gulf, lost millions of dollars as their livelihoods collapsed. To add insult to injury, for nearly two decades Exxon fought the legitimate claims of Alaskans harmed by the spill for nearly two decades. The case went all the way to the Supreme Court when in 2008, the Court issued a final judgment, reducing Exxon's punitive liability to just 10 percent of what the original court had ordered. During those 19 years, hundreds of Alaskans entitled to damages had died; thousands of others' lives were forever harmed. We Alaskans learned many lessons from the Exxon Valdez spill. One of the most important was to set up a system as early as possible to guarantee that those affected by oil spills are justly compensated. That is what my bill is designed to do.”