In this 1969 file photo, workmen using pitchforks, rakes and shovels attempt to clean up oil-soaked straw from the beach at Santa Barbara Harbor, Calif. The straw was used to absorb oil from a week-long leak from an offshore well that covered local beaches and threatened many others on the southern California shoreline areas. Forty years later,, lawmakers begin hearings on an energy and global warming bill that could revolutionize how the country produces and uses energy. / AP