House remains deadlocked over distributing oil spill fines

WASHINGTON — Some 17 months after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Gulf Coast lawmakers in the U.S. House remain unable to agree on a bill to send spill fines to the affected areas.

At stake is potentially billions of dollars in environmental and economic recovery money, which Gulf states won’t see unless Congress acts.

BP PLC and other companies deemed responsible for last year’s oil spill could be fined between $5.4 billion and $21.1 billion under the Clean Water Act. Lawmakers and the Obama administration largely agree that federal law should be changed to send most of that money to the Gulf Coast.

But they have been at odds over how much each state should get, and how it may be used.


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