so lets give em a tax break obviously

[Guest guest]

port Warns Oil Spill Funds Will Be Empty by 2009

 

May 17, 2005 — By Lolita C. Baldor, Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The federal fund used to clean up oil spills nationwide will be

drained by 2009, in part because cleanups cost more than authorities collect

from those responsible, according to a Coast Guard study released Monday.

 

The report found that over the next five years, the fund will run an annual

deficit of up to $200 million a year, depleting the current $710 million balance

by October 2009. In the fiscal year ending last Sept. 30, cleanup costs were

$143 million, while the amount of money recovered in penalties, interest and

other revenues was just $30 million.

 

Federal authorities collected just 27 percent of the removal and cleanup costs

from responsible parties for spills between 1995-2004, the report said, while

interest revenues have declined and a tax on oil that used to fuel the fund has

expired.

 

" A stable source of funding for oil spill cleanup costs and damages is vital in

protecting the environment and compensating those who have been damaged by

spills, " said Jan Lane, director of the National Pollution Funds Center, which

administers the fund.

 

She said the Coast Guard is working with Congress to find a solution to the

funding problem.

 

Since January 1994, there have been 14 devastating spills from tank barges and

ships, including:

 

--A 260,000 gallon spill last November in the Delaware River.

 

--Two spills of more than 150,000 gallons in Galveston, Texas.

 

--A nearly 166,000 gallon spill when a tank ship struck a bridge near Portland,

Maine.

 

--A 538,000 gallon spill in the Mississippi River near Buras, La.

 

Money did not start flowing into or out of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund

until after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and a large source of income was a

5-cent tax per barrel on oil produced or imported to the United States. That tax

expired in 1994.

 

Penalties are difficult to recover, the Coast Guard report said, because

authorities often can't identify the source of the spill or the vessel or

company responsible. And when they can, the responsible party may be bankrupt or

unable to pay.

 

 

Those who control the past, control the future; Those who control the future,

control the present; Those who control the present, control the past.^