U.S. Senate candidate Mike Lee opposes an effort to eliminate a cap limiting BP's liability for economic damages resulting from the massive and spreading oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

His opponent, Tim Bridgewater, is uncertain if Congress can go back and remove the $75 million cap for this disaster, but argues it is far too low. If the oil giant shirks its responsibility for those losses, Bridgewater said, Congress should appeal to the company's "morality," corporate citizenship and hold hearings on the matter.

BP is responsible for the entire cost of cleaning up the oil that began spewing from its Deepwater Horizon oil rig when it exploded April 20, killing 11 workers. But, in 1990, Congress imposed the $75 million ceiling on other economic and environmental damages. Losses in the Gulf's multibillion-dollar tourism and seafood industries, for example, are expected to easily exceed the cap.

BP has said publicly that, whether or not Congress removes the cap, it would pay "all legitimate claims," regardless of the total tab. But Capitol Hill Democrats have proposed boosting the cap to $10 billion or more.

"If it's just $75 million in total exposure, that's not nearly enough," Bridgewater said. He added he was unsure if the cap should be raised, but said he would look into it further.

For his part, Lee, an attorney, said he would oppose changing the rules on BP. He said the company relied on those assurances in the law when it invested in the business and had a reasonable set of expectations.

"To take that away," Lee said, "would be a mistake."

Asked if that meant taxpayers could be on the hook for costs that top the $75 million cap, Lee said, "Yeah, it probably does."

"I don't think that's equivalent to a bailout," he said. "If you look at the outer continental shelf as something the United States has jurisdiction over, and the United States wants to clean that up, then it's free to do so. But there's nothing in that liability cap that requires the federal government to do it."

Lee said he expects that, ultimately, BP and other offshore-drilling operations would step up and pay the expenses to show that such work can be done safely and that when disasters happen, they will be handled.

Bridgewater, a businessman, said the party most responsible for the spill should bear the costs, whether it was BP or a subcontractor or a manufacturer of parts for the rig.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce agrees with Lee that Congress shouldn't now up the cap on BP.

"Let me be clear: The recovery costs should not be on the backs of American taxpayers or the businesses that have been adversely affected by this tragedy," said Thomas J. Donohue, president and CEO of the chamber. "Abandoning the rule of law and retroactively changing the liability cap is not the best approach."

Both Bridgewater and Lee oppose the White House's six-month moratorium on deepwater offshore drilling.

"One disaster shouldn't, all of the sudden -- and it's a tragic disaster, no question -- shouldn't put all the other companies out of business and the workers out of work," Bridgewater said. "I think what happened here is going to drive up the cost of oil, it's going to take people out of work. ... I think you're punishing them unnecessarily and hurting these people who are employed by those offshore drilling rigs and companies."

Lee views offshore drilling as a national-security matter and said a moratorium means more U.S. dollars will flow overseas to buy oil.

"This disaster is tragic, to be sure," he said, "but I also have no question that we can prevent that from happening again."