Its effect on BP's liability for the blowout that is blasting hundreds of barrels of oil an hour into the Gulf of Mexico is uncertain, but, according to Sam Stein, three Senators are introducing legislation today that would increase what oil companies have to pay for disasters like that from $75 million to $10 billion. Two of the sponsoring Senators - Bob Menendez and Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey - last week called on President Obama to reverse his decision to open up most of the East coat of oil drilling.

As noted by Jed Lewison earlier this morning, as a result of the 1986 Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, companies are charged 8 cents a barrel that is put aside for damages relating to spills. The fund doesn't cover containment costs. The Senators want to expand the fund to cover potential costs of future drilling disasters.

Just how big such disasters can be is still becoming known. Bloomberg is reporting:

The growing oil slick fed by an underwater leak in a BP Plc well in the Gulf of Mexico may threaten production, shipping and refining of oil and natural gas in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana. Those three states account for 19 percent of U.S. refining capacity as of 2009, according to data from the U.S. Energy Department’s Energy Information Administration. ... If the slick moves east, crude deliveries could be interrupted to Chevron Corp’s 330,000-barrel-a-day Pascagoula refinery in Mississippi and to a Shell Chemicals refinery near Mobile, Alabama, said [Andy Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates LLC in Houston].

So far, at least one oil drilling rig and two gas platforms have been evacuated. But ship traffic is still normal, as is tanker offloading at a deepwater port that handles 10% of the nation's oil supply from underwater pipelines. There are no crude oil shortages. Whether those situations change depends on how quickly BP gets control of its well.

So far, the company is having a hard time getting its CEO Tony "What the hell did we do to deserve this?" Hayward to keep from putting his foot in his mouth. On the "Today" show this morning, he said: "It wasn't our accident, but we are absolutely responsible for the oil, for cleaning it up, and that's what we intend to do." As any good messaging guru could have told him, while technically true, the "wasn't our accident" portion of that comment will be what resonates around the world. The rest of what he said very much remains to be seen.

Besides increasing liability, the Big Oil Bailout Prevention Act would require companies "to spend future revenues on cleanup and containment costs that exceed the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund's $1.6 billion and allow community responders to access the fund for 'preparation and mitigation up front.'" Such requirements would make comments like Mr. Hayward's accepting responsibility unnecessary.