As you may have noticed, we haven’t been too pleased with Gerry Connolly of late here at Blue Virginia, but credit where credit is due. Today, the Consolidated Land, Energy, and Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act of 2010 passed the House of Representatives by a 209-193 vote. Rep. Connolly voted for this legislation, which the Natural Resources Defense Council praised as “a comprehensive reform bill and an important step forward in improving our nation’s ability to prevent and respond to oil spills,” and had two major amendments in the bill.
1. An amendment to “repeal Bush-era loopholes that allowed BP to begin oil exploration on the Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf without any analysis of the potential environmental impacts and mandate a full environmental review of every aspect of all offshore drilling activity off the U.S. coast”
2. An amendment that “ensures that if oil company subsidiaries go bankrupt, the cleanup costs will be paid for by the parent oil company.”
Again, credit where credit is due; this is good stuff for the environment. Now, if we can only persuade Rep. Connolly to change his mind on keeping the Bush tax cuts for the top 1%…
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