Pipeline critic Richard Fineberg calls for citizens oversight panel

by The Associated Press

A trans-Alaska oil pipeline critic is calling for a public oversight panel similar to the Regional Citizens Advisory Councils set up after the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

The recommendation is part of a report on the pipeline system released June 12 by the Alaska Forum for Environmental Responsibility. The report was written by Richard Fineberg, a frequent pipeline critic.

At a news conference in Washington, D.C., Fineberg said the pipeline has numerous physical, operational and management problems that are not being addressed in the pipeline right-of-way renewal process which currently is under way.

Reauthorization should require a citizens oversight group to give the pipeline more scrutiny than it’s currently getting from the owner companies and government regulators.

“It should not be left to engineers and bureaucrats to make the call on their own. We should all be in the mix,” Fineberg said. The report says climate change and melting permafrost are among future problems facing the pipeline.

An Alyeska spokesman did not immediately return a call for comment on the report.