Deukmejian Demands Probe of Tanker Spill : Government: The governor vows that those responsible will pay for the cleanup and damage to the environment. He also cautions that California must import oil to fuel its economy.

Gov. George Deukmejian on Saturday called for a state investigation of the Huntington Beach oil spill and promised that those who were responsible will “pay every dollar of the cost of cleaning up the oil and dealing with any environmental damage that results from it.”

The governor added that he will support “any reasonable steps” to improve oil tanker shipment safety, but cautioned that California cannot ignore the fact that it uses 2 million barrels of crude oil a day.

“That’s approximately twice as much as we produce,” the governor said in his weekly radio address. “The rest is imported, primarily from Alaskan supplies, and much of that comes to our state on tanker ships.”

Deukmejian also charged that those who are using the spill to back up demands for a total ban on future offshore oil development are “missing the point of the lesson we should learn from this misfortune.”

“This accident had nothing to do with oil development taking place off California,” the governor said.

“It involved a tanker bringing needed Alaskan oil into our state. If we want to reduce oil tanker traffic into our state, we must increase--not decrease or ban--our efforts to produce more domestic energy, both on land and off our coast.

“This oil tanker accident illustrates the hazards both to our economy and our environment when we are so dependent on imported oil from faraway places.”

Deukmejian said he wants a “thorough and complete” state investigation into the causes of the Huntington Beach oil spill “so we can protect against similar accidents happening in the future.

“And let me assure you that we will see that those who were responsible for this serious spill pay every dollar of the cost of cleaning up the oil and dealing with any environmental damage that results from it.”

Deukmejian said the state’s emergency response system went into gear immediately after Wednesday’s spill with the Department of Fish and Game, the Office of Emergency Services and the California Conservation Corps playing key cleanup roles.

“Our quick and effective response to this situation is the result of years of careful planning and preparation for these kinds of emergencies,” the governor said.

Meanwhile, Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) also devoted his weekly radio speech to the Huntington Beach oil spill.

Calling for the “need for constant vigilance and planning when it comes to our vulnerable coastal waters,” Brown urged enactment of a bill to correct what he contended are “weak links” in the state’s oil spill response system.

This legislation would set up a special Office of Oil Spill Response, require safety and emergency plans at every oil transfer terminal in California, provide for a vessel traffic service system by 1994, and create an oil spill cleanup superfund to be financed by fees paid by tanker operators.

Authored by Assemblyman Ted Lempert (D-San Mateo), the chairman of the Assembly Select Committee on Oil Spill Prevention and Response Preparedness, the legislation is scheduled to be discussed Feb. 26 by the Natural Resources Committee.

Brown said the select committee also will be looking into a traffic control system for oil tankers, tanker pilot training, the availability of spill cleanup equipment, and civil and criminal penalties levied in negligent oil spill cases.

“Our pristine coastline deserves to be protected,” the Assembly leader said, “not just for ourselves, but for all of our future generations.”