Oil spill governance in the United States the "Exxon Valdez" incident a number of laws were in place to prevent and respond to oil spills. These include: The above legislations were the principle governing instruments of oil spills incidents prior to the "Exxon Valdez" oil spill. Several attempts by congress to establish more encompassing and elaborate oil pollution laws were hindered by belligerent issues which mostly produced stalemates. One such conflict was federal law limiting a state's ability to enforce requirements and liability for parties responsible for causing oil spills. The focus of the debates was mostly centred on party liability. An example of the type of
Prestige oil spill a rupture and quickly release much of the remaining oil and create another catastrophic spill. The report urged the government to take "prompt" action. Experts predicted marine life could suffer from the pollution for at least ten years due to the type of oil spill, which contained light fractions with polyaromatic hydrocarbons and could poison plankton, fish eggs and crustaceans with carcinogenic effects in fish and potentially humans as well. In the subsequent months, thousands of volunteers joined the public company TRAGSA (the firm chosen by the regional government to deal with the cleanup) to help clean the affected coastline.