The oil spill along California's fragile coast
Behind the oil spill is a larger issue: aging offshore oil platforms and pipelines — and whether anyone will fix them up or shut them down.
Headlines From The Times · Lauren Raab, Gustavo Arellano, Melissa Kaplan, Miyoko Sakashita, Denise Guerra, Mario Diaz, Shannon Lin, Connor Sheets, Ashlea Brown, Shani Hilton
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Show Notes
It’s been about a week since a big oil spill hit the Southern California shoreline near Orange County. Tar sullied sensitive wetlands. Birds and fish died. Miles of beaches were closed. The L.A. Times newsroom has produced dozens of stories trying to understand what happened, and what we’ve found so far isn’t pretty: aging offshore oil platforms and pipelines — being bought up by companies that have a history of safety violations.
Today, we speak to L.A. Times investigative reporter Connor Sheets about the causes of the so-called Huntington Beach oil spill. And an environmental activist — Center for Biological Diversity oceans program director Miyoko Sakashita — describes what she found when visiting Southern California’s offshore drilling platforms in 2018.
More reading:
Full coverage: the Huntington Beach oil spill
California attorney general launches investigation into Orange County oil spill
Federal regulation of oil platforms was dogged by problems long before O.C. spill
How much would it cost to shut down an offshore oil well? Who pays?