BP faces EPA criminal probe into Alaska oil spill: WSJ News
BP faces EPA criminal probe into Alaska oil spill: WSJ

[JURIST] The Environmental Protection Agency [official website] is conducting a criminal investigation into management by British Petroleum [corporate website] of oil pipelines in Alaska, according to a report [registration required] in Thursday's Wall Street Journal. A corroded pipeline owned by the company spilled an estimated 134,000 to 267,000 gallons of crude oil in March, the largest spill ever in Alaskan history [BBC report]. The EPA's criminal investigation division [backgrounder] is looking into potential violations of the Clean Water Act [text]. The US Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska [official website] would prosecute any violation of the Clean Water Act.

The EPA probe comes as BP is being investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation [official website] into a refinery accident last year that killed 15 people and wounded 170. Reuters has more.

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On April 18, 1949, the Republic of Ireland Act went into force, creating a republic in the state of Ireland. The Act repealed the Executive Authority Act, which had given governing authority in Ireland to the King of England.

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On April 18, 1958, treason charges against American poet Ezra Pound, first laid in 1943 in connection with his wartime broadcasts for the Italian Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, were dropped.

Read Jonas Doberman, The Treason Debate: Ezra Pound and his Rome Radio Broadcasts[PDF].

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