Russell V. Randle, Oil Pollution Deskbook, Environmental Law Institute, Second Edition, 2012.
Oil, so vital to the U.S. economy, has its darker side as demonstrated by the tragic BP Deepwater Horizon incident in 2010 in the Gulf of Mexico, the “largest maritime oil spill in U.S. history”. Oil spills and environmental law have a long relationship. In the Foreword, John Cruden notes:
Oil spills have marked key moments in American environmental history and, arguably, have provided the impetus for significant change in U.S. environmental law. Many credit the Santa Barbara oil spill and the fires on the Cuyahoga River with helping to shepherd in the environmental activism of the 1970s and the blooming of federal environmental law.
