The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition federal officials claim that new rules proposed for pipelines could have prevented more than 200 accidents in the past five years, including Enbridge's disastrous Michigan rupture at Kalamazoo. An Associated Press dispatch to The Globe says included in the proposal are new inspection requirements for pipelines in rural areas; increased use of leak detection systems; and a requirement for companies to more closely analyze inspection results. Left out were requirements for the industry to install more automatic or remote-controlled valves that can quickly shut down a line when spills occur. The rules have been in the works since 2010, the same year 840,000 gallons of crude oil spilled into the Kalamazoo River. The National Transportation Safety Board cited corrosion and a crack in the line as the probable cause in the Michigan spill, and blamed the accident in large part on ineffective oversight and weak regulation from the pipeline safety administration. The leak went undetected for 17 hours, and cleanup costs for the spill exceeded $1-billion (U.S.), making it the costliest onshore oil spill ever in the U.S., NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart told Congress.