The Intended Purpose of the OSLTF Is to Fully Compensate Oil Spill Victims via Subrogation

The purpose of this petition is to demand that Congress requires responsible parties to pay the full costs and damages resulting from an oil spill incident by defining the term “expenditure,” under the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund ("OSLTF"), as “an expenditure that is not reimbursed by the responsible party.”

The advantage of defining the term “expenditure,” under the OSLTF, as “an expenditure that is not reimbursed by the responsible party,” is threefold:

(a) It eliminates the $1 billion cap which may be paid from the OSLTF with respect to any single incident;

(b) It allows the OSLTF to maintain a balance of at least $1 billion for the purpose of paying claims for damages resulting from other oil spill incidents. As the OSLTF pool of $1 billion is depleted by payments made to catastrophic oil spill claimants, it is replenished, by virtue of subrogation, by reimbursements made to the OSLTF by the responsible party; and

(c) It ensures that the costs and damages resulting from a catastrophic oil spill incident shall be borne by the responsible party, not the federal taxpayer.