California Seeks Oil Pipeline Crackdown After Spill

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California would require oil pipelines in environmentally sensitive areas to be outfitted with automatic shut-off valves under proposed legislation following a spill last month that leaked 500 barrels into the Pacific Ocean.

The three bills also would require annual inspections of pipelines and hasten the cleanup response by better positioning state-owned skimmers. A program enabling local fishing vessels to act as contractors to help with clean-up efforts would be modeled on one set up in Alaska following the Exxon Valdez oil spill of 1989.