Oil Pipeline Maker Fined For 2015 Santa Barbara Oil Spill

A pipeline company is facing a 3.3 million dollar fine for causing the worst California coastal spill in 25 years.  

A judge has handed  down the penalty to Plains All American Pipeline for a 2015 spill that sent 140-thousand gallons of crude oil gushing onto Refugio State Beach in Santa Barbara County.  

The fine is well below the one-billion-dollars prosecutors were asking for.  Additional damages could be tacked on at a restitution hearing in July.

(AP Photo/Jae Hong, File)