Oil Spill Cleanup Funds Due To Evaporate By 2009 - AP

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WASHINGTON -- The federal fund used to clean up oil spills nationwide will be drained by 2009, in part because cleanups cost more than authorities collect from those responsible, according to a Coast Guard study released Monday.

The report found that over the next five years, the fund will run an annual deficit of up to $200 million a year, depleting the current $710 million balance by October 2009. In the fiscal year ending last Sept. 30, cleanup costs were $143 million, while the amount of money recovered in penalties, interest and other revenues was just $30 million.

Federal authorities collected just 27 percent of the removal and cleanup costs from responsible parties for spills between 1995-2004, the report said, while interest revenues have declined and a tax on oil that used to fuel the fund has expired.

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Money did not start flowing into or out of the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund until after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill, and a large source of income was a 5-cent tax per barrel on oil produced or imported to the United States. That tax expired in 1994."

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http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-oil-spill-fund,0,3738290.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines