E2-Wire

A Democratic senator lashed out at a Republican Thursday who blocked a bill intended to hold oil giant BP more responsible for a massive spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who is staunchly opposed to expanded oil drilling off the U.S. coast, posted a message on his Twitter account after Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to a unanimous consent request to pass a measure that would raise the liability cap for oil companies that cause spills from $75 million to $10 billion.

"Senator from Alaska just sandbagged my bill to hold BP accountable for up to $10 billion for the oil spill," he said.

Murkowski said that she is open to the idea of raising the cap, but said lawmakers need to consider the amount more carefully. She said if the cap is raised too high, that could squeeze smaller oil companies out of the offshore drilling business because they would not be able to be bonded and insured.

But Democrats attacked Republicans after Murkowski blocked the measure, accusing them of obstructionism.

"Inexplicably, Republicans are protecting negligent oil companies like BP and blocking our efforts to prevent a BP bailout," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in a statement. "Through their obstruction, Republicans are leaving taxpayers on the hook to pay for BP’s negligence."

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a sponsor of the measure, had tweeted about the request earlier in the day.

Cross-posted to the Twitter Room

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) sought so-called unanimous consent for the bill’s passage Thursday afternoon.

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Sen. Robert Menendez is asking the Senate for unanimous consent to vote on legislation hitting BP and other oil companies.

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she would have no problem subjecting her members to another tough vote on climate change legislation before the November election if a far-reaching bill passes the Senate.

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The Senate delegations of California, Washington and Oregon are introducing legislation that would create a permanent oil-and-gas drilling ban in Pacific Coast waters.

The legislation – which follows a House proposal to bar West Coast drilling – is one of several new Capitol Hill efforts to re-impose coastal protections following the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Drilling bans along the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts lapsed in 2008.

According to an announcement of the bill from Sen. Maria Cantwell’s (D-Wash.) office, the bill would “permanently protect the $34 billion coastal economies of the three states – which support nearly 570,000 jobs in California, Oregon and Washington.”

While the lawmakers want to codify protections, the Obama administration has already ruled out selling oil-and-gas leases in Pacific waters.

Over on our main page, I have a story about the tough road ahead for the Senate climate and energy bill.

* BP, federal officials express new optimism on Gulf spill

As a House subcommittee examined possible causes to the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, BP engineers said they were nearing a solution to shut off the leak.

From the New York Times this morning: "Engineers and scientists at BP’s command center in Houston had drafted plans to work on and around an underwater blowout preventer, a massive safety device that is designed to seal an oil well in an emergency but failed to do so after the explosion at the rig on April 20."

Officials worried tinkering with the device could make the leak worse, because the blowout preventer has partly constricted the flow of oil.

But BP spokesman Andrew Gowers expressed new confidence the leak could be shut off at "acceptably low risk."

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Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) were flanked by environmentalists, religious and ex-military leaders and energy officials.

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Rep. Henry Waxman sought to tie the massive Gulf oil spill with legislation to encourage development of cleaner sources of energy, two issues highlighted on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

“Our national energy policy is broken and nothing illustrates this better than this massive spill,” Waxman (D-Calif.) said at the start of an Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing on the spill. Waxman is chairman of the full committee.

Waxman said one lesson was already clear: “We need an energy policy that emphasizes clean, renewable sources of energy.”

“If we do not have the courage to take on the oil companies and take decisive step to reduce our over-reliance on oil – when the consequences of doing nothing are so clear – we may never start down the path toward a clean energy economy.”

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Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) said there were at least “four significant problems” with the blowout preventer.

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