"The Biden administration just ramped up the risk of yet another ugly oil spill on California's beautiful coast," said Brady Bradshaw of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Unfortunately, people living near offshore drilling infrastructure are all too familiar with this abusive cycle of drill, spill, repeat."
Amplify contended that the spill wouldn't have occurred if two ships hadn't dragged their anchors across the pipeline and damaged it during a January 2021 storm. It said it wasn't notified about the anchor snagging until after the spill. The first alarm sounded late on the afternoon of Oct. 1, 2021, but workers misinterpreted the cause, according to the federal plea agreement.