Tougher Alaska Oil Spill Bills Die in Legislature

Amid heavy lobbying from the oil industry, a package of reforms to prevent a repeat of the Exxon Valdez oil spill took a battering in the final hours of Alaska’s legislative session that ended early Wednesday.

As legislators at the state Capitol in Juneau adjourned for the year, a collection of bills emerged that Gov. Steve Cowper and other state officials said will make another massive oil spill in Alaska waters less likely.

But two tougher regulatory reforms, endorsed by the governor and a state commission that investigated the Exxon spill, died in the final hours of the session following an aggressive campaign by the oil industry to defeat them.

“We got a lot of what we wanted,” said Cowper. “We got about two-thirds of what we wanted. But I would have preferred to have gotten the stronger bills that we introduced. But there was an extremely heavy presence in the Legislature by the industry.”

Among the five bills that passed were measures improving spill cleanup contingency planning, raising the financial liability limit for spillers and increasing the criminal penalties for the negligent operation of oil tankers.

But the measure considered the keystone of the package of “spill bills” died in a committee of the conservative Republican-controlled state Senate late Tuesday. It would have given the Department of Environmental Conservation more power to enforce existing state regulations, including allowing surprise inspections of designated oil facilities and allowing fines of up to $15,000 a day to stop illegal practices.

The oil industry labeled the measure the “Gestapo bill,” contending it gave the government too much power. Oil lobbyists mobilized opposition from mining, timber and other resource industries.

Industry representatives said Wednesday they were generally pleased with the bills that passed. And senators--criticized by the Democratic governor and House members for standing in the way of oil spill reforms--defended their action.

“I think what passed was responsible,” said Sen. Drue Pearce (R-Anchorage), chairman of the Senate Oil and Gas Committee. “We took into account the concerns of all the parties. It was an amazingly open process.”

Pearce, like other legislators, said the package will make another huge spill more difficult.