During the presidential campaign, Barack Obama promised to “restore the strength of the Superfund program by requiring polluters to pay for the cleanup of contaminated sites they created.”
He was referring to a provision of the original Superfund law that lapsed at the end of 1995. That provision enabled the government to levy taxes on oil and chemical companies as well as a special tax on corporate profits. The funds were used to pay for the cleanup of “orphan sites” for which no responsible party could be found to foot the cleanup bill. Such sites account for roughly 30 percent of all Superfund sites. The disappearence of the tax has hobbled the federal government’s ability to clean up orphan sites and made the program heavily reliant on taxpayer dollars to pay its costs.
Opposition by congressional Republicans, President George W. Bush and the industries affected scuttled numerous attempts to reinstate the tax during the past decade. Now, at least two bills have been introduced in the House that would accomplish Obama’s promise.
Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J. — a high-ranking member of the influential House Energy and Commerce Committee and a representative of the state with the largest number of Superfund sites — has introduced the Superfund Polluter Pays Act (H.R. 832), while Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., has introduced a bill, H.R. 564, that varies slightly. Both have been referred to House committees for further review but have not advanced beyond that.
In the Senate, Pallone’s fellow New Jersey Democrat, Frank Lautenberg, has said that he would also introduce legislation to do the same thing. In the previous Congress, Obama signed on to Lautenberg’s Superfund bill, which died in committee.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration, in its fiscal year 2010 budget, proposed reinstating the tax and said it would generate $17.2 billion between fiscal year 2011 and fiscal year 2019. The administration said it would not levy the tax until 2011, when it expects the economy to have recovered from its current recession.
The expected opposition by Republicans and by industries hit by the tax will pose severe obstacles for implementing this promise, and the current economic troubles only make the challenge harder. But the idea is moving forward on several fronts, which is enough for us to rate Obama’s promise as In the Works.