The Gulf Coast oil disaster has the entire nation looking closely at its shorelines, oceans and coastal areas. Rhode Island Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is currently working on two separate pieces of legislation aimed at protecting the state’s oceans and coastal areas.
“This has been a long and consistent concern of mine,” said Whitehouse in an interview Monday.
Whitehouse was the United States attorney for Rhode Island during the North Cape oil spill in 1996. More than 828,000 gallons of home heating oil spilled into local waters, killing an estimated 9 million lobsters, millions of surf clams, fish, birds, and other organisms when the 340-foot North Cape oil barge ran aground off Moonstone Beach, after its tug caught fire during a severe winter storm.
“I personally handed down the largest criminal fine ever paid in Rhode Island,” said Whitehouse. Eklof Marine Corp. of New York paid $9.5 million in fines and compensation for the spill.
These new pieces of legislation continue Whitehouse’s efforts to protect the coastal waterways that are crucial to the state’s economy and environment.
Read the complete story from the Johnston Sun Rise.