Bob Menendez: “I rise once again to ask unanimous consent--and I will do so shortly--to hold oil companies accountable for their…”

“I rise once again to ask unanimous consent--and I will do so shortly--to hold oil companies accountable for their spills. This is really a sense of who is on your side. Are we going to take the side of big oil or are we going to take the side of commercial fishermen? Are we going to take the side of big oil or are we going to take the side of shrimp fishermen? Are we going to take the side of big oil or are we going to take the side of preserving the estuaries that are so critical yet that we see increasingly devastated, the wildlife, with consequences to those ecosystems that may very well affect a generation? Are we going to take a side with big oil or are we going to stand up for the tourism industry that is affected? Are we going to stand up for big oil or are we going to stand with the boater who ultimately sees his boat languishing in the waters because he cannot go out because there is no one to take out on a commercial venture? Are we going to stand up for the communities and the coasts along the gulf shore or are we going to stand with big oil? That is what this effort is all about. It is about setting responsibility where responsibility should lie. I applaud that the President got BP to sign up to $20 billion over the next 4 years or so. But that does not mean we should not be lifting the liability cap, a liability cap that is ridiculously low at $75 million total when BP, for example, makes over $90 million a day.”