California Pipeline Replacement Depends on New Rights-of-Way

Plains All American Pipeline LP agreed not to construct a new crude oil pipeline system in California without first obtaining new permanent rights-of-way, as part of a federal lawsuit that began in 2016 following a major oil spill.

Property owners, both companies and individuals, claimed in their 2020 second amended complaint that Plains failed to properly maintain its crude oil pipeline—constructed in the late 1980s—resulting in hundreds of thousands of gallons of oil released in 2015 onto the properties, public recreation areas, and beaches, and into the Pacific Ocean.

In 2016, the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration ...