Oil Spill Bill Approved by House Includes Rep. Miller’s Provisions to
Prohibit Dangerous Oil Companies from New Drilling and Protect Rights of Oil Rig Workers

WASHINGTON, DC – The full House of Representatives voted today to deny new offshore oil leases or drilling permits to British Petroleum (BP) or any other company with an egregious worker safety and environmental record, announced Rep. George Miller (D-CA), who authored the provision.

Miller’s amendment was contained in a sweeping offshore oil reform bill passed by the House in response to the Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico that resulted in the worst oil spill in American history. In addition, Miller’s legislation to extend strong federal whistleblower protections to workers in the offshore oil and gas industry was approved with a strong bipartisan vote.

“Today, the House voted to hold oil and gas drilling companies accountable for their actions and to make offshore drilling safer for the environment, safer for workers, and safer for coastal communities,” said Miller, chair of the Education and Labor Committee and former chair of the Committee on Natural Resources.

“The fact is, British Petroleum does not fit Americans’ expectations of a how a responsible company should act. BP or any other company that fails to adhere to worker safety and environmental laws and that fails to learn from its errors and clean up its operations will be denied the right to new leasing and drilling off American waters. Actions should have consequences, and, until now, BP clearly has not been held accountable for its actions.”

Miller said that his whistleblower legislation is critical not only to keep workers safe but to ensure proper operation some of the most complicated and dangerous facilities in the industry. “A whistleblower may be the only thing standing between a safe workplace and a catastrophe,” Miller said. “No worker should ever have to choose between his life and his livelihood. Under my legislation, workers on offshore oil and gas operations would be protected to report safety concerns without fear of losing their jobs.”

Miller’s impassioned speech against the Republican Motion to defeat Miller’s Whistleblower Protection bill:

Background on the legislation approved by the House today:

Offshore Oil Reform: The CLEAR Act included Miller’s Certification of Responsible Stewardship. This provision would bar a company from drilling in the American Outer Continental Shelf if its record indicated five times the industry average for willful or repeat worker safety violations at oil and gas facilities, if more than 10 fatalities occurred at any of its facilities as a violation of state or federal law, or if it incurred fines of $10 million or more under Clean Air Act or Clean Water Act within the preceding 7 years.

In addition to Miller’s provision, the CLEAR Act contains these important provisions in response to the BP oil spill:
• Strong new safety measures, including independent certification of critical equipment,
• Holds BP and oil industry fully responsible for cleanup costs and recovery after spills – removing the $75 million cap on economic damages to be paid by Big Oil to families and small businesses,
• Strengthens oversight of oil drilling by dismantling the current scandal ridden agency in charge and reforming ethics rules,
• Restores the Gulf Coast and requires oil companies to restore the land and water that belongs to the American people, and
• Provides long overdue taxpayer protections, reduces the deficit by more than $5 billion, and ends tax giveaways to oil companies so that they pay their fair share for drilling in waters owned by the American people.

Whistleblower Protection: The House approved Miller’s Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act (H.R. 5851), legislation to extend strong whistleblower protections to workers on Outer Continental Shelf engaged in oil and gas exploration, drilling, production, or cleanup. Currently, individuals working on the Outer Continental Shelf have no protection against retaliation by an employer for speaking up on hazard conditions. Authored by Miller and Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), the bill recognizes that while many workers on the Deepwater Horizon rig had serious safety concerns prior to the explosion, workers were reluctant to come forward with those concerns because they feared that they would lose their job. The provisions mirror other recently enacted whistleblower laws.

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