The pipeline that ruptured and spewed about 25,000 gallons of oil into the ocean off Huntington Beach, California, in October 2021 is being refilled with oil and is expected to be in use again sometime this month, pipeline operator Amplify Energy said Monday, April 10.
Though resumption of production off the Orange County coast figures to end one part of a saga that has involved national media, a spree of lawsuits and countersuits, and a criminal plea by Houston-based Amplify, at least some environmentalists hope the local spill still could lead to tougher new rules for all offshore oil operators.
“I would hope that, given the Biden administration’s stated intentions to do more on climate, that we will see a little more attention paid to these old platforms and other operations off the Pacific coast that are ripe for decommissioning,” said Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental group with offices in California.
