House Oil Spill Response Bill includes gold standard whistleblower protection
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has announced plans to bring the Oil Spill Response Bill to the House floor for passage. The Washington Independent is reporting that the bill will include the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act of 2010, which, “provides whistleblower and anti-retaliation protections to workers on the Outer Continental Shelf” and “protects worker safety by improving federal agency coordination.” The text of this bill is available here. From my read, it includes most of what we call the "gold standard" protections for whistleblowers. It will protect oil and gas workers when the raise concerns about compliance with the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, or any concerns about illness, injury or unsafe conditions. It would protect reports made in the course of performing duties, and protect refusals to violate the law. It would provide a right of action through the Department of Labor, a 180-day statute of limitations, a contributing factor standard for proving causation, and a "clear and convincing evidence" burden for employers who claim they would have fired the whistleblower even if protected activity was not considered. If the Department of Labor has not issued a final order within 300 days, whistleblowers could go to U.S. District Court and ask for a trial by jury. One provision that is missing (but was added to SOX in the Dodd-Frank Act) is a provision specifically barring enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration agreements. It does provide that, "The rights and remedies in this section may not be waived by any agreement, policy, form, or condition of employment," but this might not be enough to keep courts from enforcing arbitration agreements, as they are keen to do. It would be a good day for oil and gas workers, and for everyone who cares about the environment we leave for future generations, if this bill would pass. It would be an even better day if the House adds the Dodd-Frank anti-arbitration language.
, was a top microbiologist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). He raised the standards for dental hygiene worldwide when he showed how previous practices were inadequate to protect dental patients from the transmission of HIV. He showed how EPA's rules for land application of sewage sludge did not have the scientific support needed to protect us from airborne diseases. Now the 
first approached the law firm of Kohn, Kohn, and Colapinto to represent me in my attempts to address the problems at the FBI crime lab, we were a nation in denial. Whistleblowers had a history of being dealt with brutally. And today the same brutality is evident in every whistleblower case the law firm and the NWC handles. Today I look at the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico as countless lives and resources are destroyed and know that somewhere in that group of people who brought this disaster on our nation, there were potential whistleblowers who said to themselves that the risks of blowing the whistle on BP malpractices were just not worth the dangers to themselves and their families. After all, this nation cares little for the rights and protections of individuals who would proactively stop such disasters. This lack of concern is reflected in the actions of our Congressmen and Senators, some of whom have labored hard and diligently to establish whistleblower protections while most ignore obvious safeguards for our nation, our citizens and our natural resources. If we do not wake up in the face of this, the worst environmental disaster in history created by lax standards by the British Petroleum Corporation, then we deserve what we get. 
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