BP pledged Tuesday an undetermined amount of money to create a new fund aimed at protecting and rehabilitating wildlife along four Gulf Coast states.
The oil giant will "donate the net revenue from oil recovered from the spill" to a new wildlife fund to "create, restore, improve and protect wildlife habitat along the coastline of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida," according to a release on BP's website this afternoon. No specifics on the funding mechanism or on the potential projects were announced.
In total, BP will deposit its share of the net revenue — about 53 percent of the total sales price — into the new wildlife fund.
BP didn't speculate on how much could be raised for the fund because it will be based on the amount of oil collected and the price when sold. The company also expects "that each barrel of collected oil will sell at a lower price than regular crude," because it contain a higher concentration of menthanol, used during the containment process.
Creation of the fund is "over and above BP's obligations under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990," according to a company release.
Net revenue includes the sale of the oil minus 18.75 percent in royalties paid to the U.S. government. BP's 65 percent share would be deposited into the fund. The remaining 35 percent of the net revenue will be paid to the co-owners of the leasehold interest.
Revenue for the fund ends when the well is "killed and oil is no longer coming from this source."
"We believe these funds will have a significant positive impact on the environment in the region," Tony Hayward, BP's CEO, said in a statement Tuesday.
A group of Senate Democrats unveiled a bill on Tuesday that would give the presidential commission investigating the Gulf oil spill the power to issue subpoenas.
Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and nine other Democrats introduced legislation to give the bipartisan panel the authority to compel officials from BP and the government to appear and testify as it investigates the causes of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
“BP and the other companies responsible for this devastating oil spill must not be allowed to stonewall the American people,” Shaheen said in a statement. “Subpoena power is absolutely necessary to make sure that all responsible parties provide us with the information and evidence we need in order to prevent an economic and environmental disaster of this magnitude from ever happening again.”
Shaheen's office pointed to precedent for special presidential commissions having received subpoena power, notably the Warren Commission, which investigated the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, as well as the commission that probed the nuclear crisis at Three Mile Island in 1979.
President Barack Obama established the commission late last month and appointed former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.) and former Environmental Protection Agency Director William Reilly (R) as co-chairmen.
Companion legislation will be introduced by Reps. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) and Edward Markey (D-Mass.) in the House.
Other Senate Democrats to sign onto Shaheen's bill include Sens. John Kerry (Mass.), Byron Dorgan (N.D.), Patty Murray (Wash.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Robert Menendez (N.J.), Bob Casey Jr. (Pa.), Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Mark Begich (Alaska) and Kirsten Gillibrand (N.Y.).
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) raised the political stakes on this week's EPA vote by casting supporters of the measure as handmaidens of
"big oil."
The Senate is slated to vote Thursday on Sen. Lisa Murkowski's
(R-Alaska) measure that would overturn the Environmental Protection Agency's authority to regulate
greenhouse gases. The resolution, which has 40 cosponsors beyond
Murkowski thus far, cannot be filibustered.
Reid, through a spokesman, on Tuesday launched a new attack on the plan as Democratic leaders seek to keep it shy of reaching 51 votes.
“Even with thousands of barrels of oil still gushing into the Gulf,
Republicans are trying to hand a $47 billion giveaway to big oil
companies later this week," said Reid spokesman Jim Manley in a
prepared statement.
“This giveaway, otherwise known as the Murkowski disapproval
resolution, is backed by oil company lobbyists because it would
increase the nation’s consumption of oil by at least 455 million
barrels, and probably waste several billion more," he added.
Murkowski's plan is cosponsored by three centrist Democrats — Blanche
Lincoln (Ark.), Mary Landrieu (La.) and Ben Nelson (Neb.). But other
Democratic votes are in play, including that of Sen. Jay Rockefeller
(D-W.Va.), who said Monday he may support the measure.
Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), seeking to show political momentum for his climate change plan, said the measure has much deeper support than global warming legislation the House approved last year.
Kerry and co-author Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) are under pressure to gain traction for greenhouse gas limits ahead of a planned Senate debate on energy legislation next month.
Climate advocates hope to prevent Senate leaders from instead
moving a narrower energy measure that omits emissions limits. But
greenhouse gas caps face widespread resistance among Republicans and
some moderate Democrats.
Kerry, in an interview broadcasted on PBS’s “Charlie Rose” Monday night, nonetheless claims the bill unveiled last month has attracted a “new coalition” that believes the measure is in the country’s economic, security, health and environmental interests.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) said Monday that he “could very well” vote for Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s (R-Alaska) plan to block any Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) climate change rules even though it goes much further than his competing measure.
The Senate is slated to vote Thursday on Murkowski’s resolution, which cannot be amended or filibustered but nonetheless faces a tough road to winning 51 votes.
“It is a message about EPA,” Rockefeller told reporters in the Capitol on Monday evening. “I think it will send a message regardless of how many votes it gets.” That message, he added, “would be with respect to EPA’s closing in on coal.”
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