Federal lawmakers are demanding more information on the massive oil spill off the coast of California as a legislative battle looms over whether to include a ban on future offshore drilling in a scaled-down $3.5-trillion bill.
Federal lawmakers are demanding more information on the massive oil spill off the coast of Orange County as a legislative battle looms over whether to include a ban on future offshore drilling in a scaled-down $3.5-trillion bill. The House Oversight and Reform Committee on Wednesday requested reams of records from federal agencies to figure out whether regulatory failings contributed to a pipeline spilling an estimated 144,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. In a letter to the federal regulators, Rep. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), chairwoman of the oversight committee, and five Democratic members of the California delegation documented what they described as troubling compliance issues with Amplify Energy’s San Pedro Bay Pipeline, which is operated by Beta Operating Co., the source of last week’s leak. The lawmakers are seeking briefings and documents related to federal inspections of the San Pedro Bay Pipeline, as well as documents detailing enforcement actions for noncompliance by Amplify and Beta since Jan.1,2011. The lawmakers wrote that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement has documented about 125 noncompliance incidents by Beta since 2011, which led to at least 53 warnings,71 “component shut-in violations” and a “facility shut-off” violation. The Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the lawmakers added, has issued multiple warnings to Beta since 2008, including a corrective action order Tuesday. “This is particularly concerning because the pipeline reportedly should have been monitored by an automated leak detection system,” they wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Times. “The damage from the spill is widespread, and local officials fear that some of it will be irreversible. Despite efforts to contain the damage, dead birds and oil-covered fish have been washing up along the ocean’s shores.
