Environmentalists consider suing US govt for southern California oil spill
An Arizona-based environment group filed a notice to U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), showing its intent to sue the federal government for its miscoundct in office causing the oil spill incident in southern California in October.
In the 11-page notice letter, the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) accuses the Secretary of the Interior and BOEM of violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act (OCSLA), Xinhua news agency reported.
The BOEM illegally allows Platform Elly and other offshore oil production in the Beta oilfield to operate under outdated drilling plans written in the 1970s and ’80s instead of reviewing and requiring revision of the plans as the age of the infrastructure and other changes had been over forty years old, the letter said.
