Live-Tweeting the #BPhearing on Liability

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I’m at the Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on liability and the BP spill this morning, where senators are hearing testimony on how to ensure that the oil giant covers all the costs associated with the Gulf disaster.

Senate Democrats have put forward a bill to raise the liability cap to $10 billion. This would be significantly higher than the current cap of $75 million, set under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, though it still might be well below the estimated $14 billion in costs expected to accrue in the Gulf spill. Senate Democrats have tried twice to bring up the measure under unanimous consent, but were twice blocked — first by Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and then by James Inhofe (R-Okla.).

I’ll be live-tweeting the event below.

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WE'LL BE BLUNT

We need to start raising significantly more in donations from our online community of readers, especially from those who read Mother Jones regularly but have never decided to pitch in because you figured others always will. We also need long-time and new donors, everyone, to keep showing up for us.

In "It's Not a Crisis. This Is the New Normal," we explain, as matter-of-factly as we can, what exactly our finances look like, how brutal it is to sustain quality journalism right now, what makes Mother Jones different than most of the news out there, and why support from readers is the only thing that keeps us going. Despite the challenges, we're optimistic we can increase the share of online readers who decide to donate—starting with hitting an ambitious $300,000 goal in just three weeks to make sure we can finish our fiscal year break-even in the coming months.

Please learn more about how Mother Jones works and our 47-year history of doing nonprofit journalism that you don't elsewhere—and help us do it with a donation if you can. We've already cut expenses and hitting our online goal is critical right now.

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