Report Urges Double Hulls for Oil Tankers
A panel set up to investigate how to prevent future oil spills such as last year’s Exxon Valdez accident concluded Friday that oil should be shipped in double-hulled tankers under close government scrutiny.
The Alaska Oil Spill Commission blamed the federal government for lax oversight of the industry and called for a major overhaul of the way oil is shipped.
The oil industry would be required to offer new safety guarantees to the public under a proposed set of stringent state and federal government controls to gain permission to ship oil, according to the blueprint outlined by the commission in a 61-page summary presented to Gov. Steve Cowper.
The report is to be used as a working document in the Alaska Legislature as the state seeks ways to prevent a recurrence of the March 24 Exxon Valdez oil spill, the worst in U.S. history.
The findings and 59 recommendations, many aimed at the federal government, will be presented to Congress.
The panel wants all oil tankers in U.S. waters to have double hulls. A double hull would have cut the 11-million-gallon Exxon Valdez spill by 60%, the report said.
It said also that oil tankers should be monitored in much the same way that air traffic control systems operate.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
