US moves to cut pipeline disasters; critics say more needed

By MATTHEW BROWN
Associated Press

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials are adopting a long delayed rule aimed at reducing deaths and environmental damage from oil and gas pipeline ruptures. But safety advocates said Thursday’s move by the U.S. Transportation Department would not have averted the accidents that prompted the new rule. That’s because it applies only to new pipelines and not to hundreds of thousands of miles of lines that already crisscross the country. The rule is in response to a massive gas explosion in San Bruno, California that killed eight people in 2010 and to large oil spills into Michigan’s Kalamazoo River and Montana’s Yellowstone River.