Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) is firing back at Democrats who have cast her objection to oil spill liability legislation as proof that Republicans are too cozy with the oil industry.

Murkowski last week objected to quick, unanimous passage of Democratic legislation that would raise oil companies’ liability for offshore spill damages from $75 million to $10 billion.

“To stand up on the floor and say this is the answer to a very serious issue, and not having run that answer through a committee, no real process, and demanding UC [unanimous consent] on it, I think it does, to a certain extent, politicize it,” she told The Hill in the Capitol Wednesday.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Wednesday formalized the dismantling of Interior’s troubled offshore oil-and-gas drilling agency by signing an order that cleaves it into three separate branches.

The splintering of the Minerals Management Service is aimed at ending what Salazar called “conflicting missions” within the agency, which regulates offshore drilling while collecting billions of dollars from the industry in leasing bids and production royalties.

Salazar’s move – announced in broader terms May 11 – follows years of criticism of the MMS that intensified after the April 20 offshore rig explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that touched off the ongoing oil spill.

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) said Wednesday that a major new scientific report on global warming demonstrates the “urgency” of passing the climate change and energy bill he unveiled last week.

The National Academy of Sciences released a study Wednesday that concludes there is powerful evidence that climate change is occurring and human activities are a major reason why.

“This is yet another wake-up call on the threats of global climate change,” Kerry said in a prepared statement. “These studies clearly demonstrate the urgency for Senate action on the American Power Act.”

The leading scientific group in the United States reported Wednesday that a “strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring” and is largely caused by human activity.

The National Academy of Sciences, which issued three reports relating to climate change on Wednesday, acknowledged that “certain Earth system processes” are not fully understood. But the group added that "it is clear" Earth's future climate will be markedly different from what it has been for the last 10,000 years.

Environmental groups used the report to refute claims pushed by climate change skeptics that the so-called Climategate e-mail controversy and errors in the United Nations report on global warming undercut evidence that burning fossil fuels is altering the climate.

A “hard price collar” in the Senate bill released last week will decrease market price fluctuations, revising previous estimates.

The top Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on Wednesday sought to lay blame for the Gulf of Mexico oil spill squarely at the feet of the Obama administration.

“All of the actions to ensure safety measures were put in place have to be attributed to the Obama administration,” said Rep. John Mica (R-Fla.) at a committee hearing.

The panel’s hearing is one of roughly a half-dozen this week about the fatal April 20 explosion of the Deepwater Horizon rig and subsequent spill. Mica noted the Interior Department’s approval of BP’s drilling plan under the current administration.

Salazar acknowledges lax oversight

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar acknowledged that regulation of offshore drilling was too lax in testimony Tuesday before two Senate panels.

But even as Salazar said their were some "bad apples" at his agency's Minerals Management Service, he also said it was too early to say whether negligent oversight contributed to the ongoing spill in the Gulf.

"The conclusion that this is an unregulated industry is not correct," Salazar told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, according to this account in the Wall Street Journal. "It is a very highly regulated industry. That doesn't mean there isn't room for improvement."

The Obama administration broke away from Senate Democrats on Tuesday when it echoed a Republican argument against raising liability claims on oil companies.

President Barack Obama harshly criticized Senate Republicans today for blocking a measure to raise the liability cap on oil spills.

Under current law, oil companies can only be held liable for $75 million of damages. After the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, senators from both parties have proposed drastically raising the cap to as high as $17 billion.

But the last two times the measure has come up on the Senate floor, individual Republicans have objected.

"I am disappointed that an effort to ensure that oil companies pay fully for disasters they cause has stalled in the United States Senate on a partisan basis. This maneuver threatens to leave taxpayers, rather than the oil companies, on the hook for future disasters like the BP oil spill," Obama said in a statement this afternoon.

"I urge the Senate Republicans to stop playing special interest politics and join in a bipartisan effort to protect taxpayers and demand accountability from the oil companies," he added.

This morning, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) objected to the legislation, arguing the $10 billion proposed cap was arbitrary. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected the last time the cap came up for a vote.

Gulf State Republicans David Vitter (La.), Jeff Sessions (Ala.), Roger Wicker (Miss.) and George LeMieux (Fla.) offered their own legislation, which would increase the liability cap to $17 billion.