U.S. officials on Monday adopted a long delayed rule aimed at reducing deaths and environmental damage from oil and gas pipeline ruptures in response to fatal explosions and massive spills that happened in California, Michigan and other states.
But safety advocates said the U.S. Transportation Department move would not have averted the accidents that prompted the rule because it applies only to new pipelines — and not the hundreds of thousands of miles of lines that already crisscross the country.
