Senate Panel OKs Superfund Bill for Work on Oil Spills : Pollution: Industry lobbying is unsuccessful. Action on similar bills is pending in state Legislature.

Oil company lobbyists turned out in force Monday but failed to stop a key Senate committee from approving a bill to create a $150-million “superfund” plus an unlimited line of credit backed by oil company resources that the state could use to clean up oil spills.

At the same time, another Senate committee postponed action on a similar Assembly-passed bill. This measure would create a $64-million superfund and a $1-billion line of credit for state borrowing purposes.

Meanwhile, Gov. George Deukmejian has an oil spill cleanup plan, which is languishing in an Assembly committee.

The outpouring of bills was sparked by the 1989 Exxon spill in Alaska and the British Petroleum spill off Huntington Beach earlier this year.

Negotiators in a two-house conference committee will try to resolve differences and produce a compromise bill.

By a 9-2 vote, the Appropriations Committee approved a bill by Senate Majority Leader Barry Keene (D-Benicia) to levy a 25-cents-per-barrel tax on all oil except that produced by small independents or so-called “mom and pop” operations that turn out less than 500 barrels per day. The Keene bill now proceeds to the Senate floor.

Citing the lack of a quorum, the Senate Natural Resources Committee delayed a vote for at least one week on a rival measure sponsored by Assemblyman Ted Lempert (D-San Mateo), chairman of the Select Committee on Oil Spill Prevention and Response Preparedness.

It would impose an 18-cents-per-barrel surcharge on all oil passing through California ports to raise the $64 million and set up the $1-billion line of credit for borrowing.

It also would create a new state office to coordinate all oil spill response efforts, require tanker safety plans at every oil transfer terminal and require unannounced tanker inspections.

The governor’s plan, embodied in a bill carried by Assemblyman Eric Seastrand (R-Salinas), calls for a $30-million oil spill cleanup superfund financed by an oil tax.

It also would require oil companies to demonstrate that they have $500 million worth of oil spill liability protection in order to move their product through California waters. The state Department of Fish and Game would become the lead agency in implementing the law.

About two dozen oil company lobbyists showed up for the Senate committee hearing on the Keene bill because of the high monetary stakes involved.

Tam Poland of Shell Oil Co. opposed the broad-based tax, arguing, “The more often you risk the shoreline, the more often you should pay.”

Committee member Sen. Leroy Greene (D-Carmichael) shot back, “No matter how you see it, we (the consumers) will pay the tax at the (gasoline) pump.”

Lifting the cap on the borrowing power was strongly supported by Corey Brown of the Planning and Conservation League, who testified: “An oil spill cleanup could cost billions of dollars. We want to make sure that the oil industry--not the taxpayers--pays that cost.”

The amendment lifting the cap won on a 7-1 vote.