Judge James Herman fined Plains All American Pipeline
Company $3.3 million as a sentence for having caused the pipeline rupture and
attendant oil spill into the ocean off Refugio Beach in May 2015. The sentence
came in response to the felony conviction imposed by a Santa Barbara jury last
summer.
The jury found the Texas-based pipeline company responsible
for allowing the pipeline to become so corroded that it split and leaked,
fouling in the process navigable waters. Judge Herman imposed what he said was
the biggest fine the law allowed, but he expressed doubt that it was big enough
to deter the oil pipeline company in the future.
Judge Herman echoed many of the concerns expressed by
prosecuting attorney Kevin Weichbrod, who argued at some length that the
company’s history of pipeline ruptures and safety violations constituted a
pattern and practice of corporate negligence. Weichbrod had argued the judge
should fine the company $1.2 billion. Weichbrod contended the judge should
impose the maximum fine for every day Plains All American had known the
pipeline was at risk of rupture and did nothing to make the necessary repairs. Herman
stated that the indictment for which the company was convicted was for only one
day.