LOS ANGELES (AP) – Exxon Mobil Corp. won approval Monday for its plan to use trucks to move more than 17 million gallons of oil stranded in storage tanks after a California pipeline break in May.
The approval came despite concerns from an environmental group that highway safety could be jeopardized.
The Santa Barbara County Planning and Development Department endorsed the proposal, which lets the company run up to 30 truck trips a day for as long as six months to move the marooned crude to pumping stations.
Eight months ago, the ruptured pipeline created the largest coastal oil spill in California in 25 years, fouling beaches near Santa Barbara and spreading goo as far as 100 miles.
The pipeline is shut indefinitely.