California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Monday announced that the California Department of Justice opened an investigation into an oil spill that occurred off the Huntington Beach coast earlier this month. Bonta shared that federal, state, and local authorities will investigate the oil spill to determine the spill’s cause and to assess what measures could have prevented or minimized the spill’s effects.

Bonta announced the investigation during a special briefing provided by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response, the US Coast Guard, and Amplify Energy, which is the company responsible for the spill. Bonta said that because “oil is the past, not our future,” he will not waver when protecting Californians, the environment, and natural resources, including California’s 840 miles of sacred coastline. Bonta added that although Huntington Beach is reopening, the successful cleanup efforts do not “negate the horrific lasting impact of this disaster.”

US Senator Alex Padilla joined Bonta at the briefing to share his thoughts on the emergency response to the spill. Padilla said: “It is so unacceptable that so many Californians are once again facing the devastating effects of an offshore oil spill.” He confirmed that “thousands upon thousands of gallons of oil” seeped into environmentally sensitive wetlands. He then thanked the US Coast Guard and volunteers who worked around the clock to minimize further damage to sensitive wetland habitats.

Earlier this year, Senator Dianne Feinstein sponsored the West Coast Ocean Protection Act of 2021, which would prohibit the Department of the Interior from issuing new leases for oil and gas drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf off the coast of California, Oregon, or Washington. During the briefing, Padilla said he supports this act because it would “prevent another needless environmental disaster.”