U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, both of California, want the U.S. Coast Guard to explain why it took several hours to notify local officials of the extent of the San Francisco Bay oil spill. “If you had your grandchildren playing in the sand here, you would have wanted to know four hours earlier to go home,” Pelosi says. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen says the Coast Guard was focused on the damage and containing the spill. Heavy fog also made it hard to tell how bad the spill was. Listen to Allen discuss the spill and read his statement about the response.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which investigates major accidents, is checking the ship’s data recorder to reconstruct a precise timeline of events that led up to the oil spill. For an explanation of how ship traffic is controlled in San Francisco Bay and a rough chronology of the Cosco Busan disaster, read the background report prepared for the U.S. House Subcommittee on Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation.
Russia has banned river-class boats from its seas and ordered more ship inspections following the Black Sea oil spill. Some environmentalists say Russia’s standards for the oil industry have been too low. Vladimir Slivyak, head of the Russia-based environmental group Ecodefense, tells the Christian Science Monitor, “It is the goal of the Russian government to export as much oil as possible while the prices are high and, since they are obeying official policy, the oil companies often feel they can ignore safety concerns with impunity." Oleg Mitvol of Russia’s environmental agency says, “Russian companies are learning to work to world standards.”
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