PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 112-951.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Mar 29, 2011
Natural Resources Restoration Act of 2011 - Amends the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to require the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to enter into an arrangement with the National Academies to convene a panel of scientists to evaluate and report on the natural resource damages from the blowout and explosion of the mobile offshore drilling unit Deepwater Horizon on April 20, 2010, the resulting hydrocarbon releases into the environment, and the various response actions that injured natural resources in the Gulf of Mexico and in state water and land bordering the Gulf of Mexico (Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill).
Requires the panel to report on the costs for federal and state trustees designated with respect to natural resource damages from the spill of: (1) restoring such injured natural resources; and (2) compensating such trustees for the loss of natural resource services from April 20, 2010, to the date the natural resources are fully restored. Requires trustees, in assessing such damages, to include a special assessment in an amount equal to 30% of the cost of restoring such resources and services or an amount mutually agreed to by the responsible parties and the trustees. Requires special assessments to be: (1) paid by the responsible parties; (2) used by trustees to conduct projects to restore natural resources injured by such spill; and (3) credited toward any other natural resource damages assessed against the responsible parties for such spill.
Requires the Administrator to promulgate regulations establishing a program under which responsible parties can purchase credits for the cost of such projects carried out by trustees.
People & committees
Sen. Vitter, David [R-LA] · R–LA
Legislative record
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Committee on Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Water and Wildlife. Hearings held. With printed Hearing: S.Hrg. 112-951.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
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Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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