The suit that state and federal officials recently filed could signal they are especially upset with Exxon’s conduct. It could also be politics as usual.
Jun 19, 2013
Stream near the site of ExxonMobil’s Arkansas spill in the town of Mayflower. Credit: Tar Sands Blockade, flickr
The lawsuit that state and federal officials in Arkansas filed last week against ExxonMobil is unusual, pipeline experts say, because government agencies usually wait much longer—sometimes even years—before filing lawsuits against companies involved in pipeline accidents.
Exxon’s Pegasus pipeline ruptured on March 29, spilling at least 210,000 gallons of heavy Canadian crude oil into Mayflower, Ark. about 25 miles northwest of Little Rock.
“And this [the lawsuit] comes along three months after?” said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit watchdog organization based in Bellingham, Wash. “There’s something at work here we simply don’t know about.”
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