As deliberations on the Keystone XL Pipeline continue, I was dismayed to learn of yet another oil spill from yet another effective pipeline. Big Oil is demonstrating their inability to transport oil safely in pipelines, let alone clean up the mess. They are content to make the US a spillway, but we cannot be.
Huh. So maybe these pipelines are shoddy or poorly designed, since this is the third accident in a week. If only there was some kind of movement to keep these pipelines out of ecologically sensitive areas like the Gulf of Mexico! Oh, wait….
Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from a pipeline in Texas, the third accident of its kind in only a week.
Shell Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc, shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.
By Monday, Shell spokespeople said inspectors found “no evidence” of an oil leak, but days later it was revealed that a breach did occur. Representatives with the US Coast Guard confirmed to Dow Jones on Thursday that roughly 50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Lehman said that Shell had dispatched clean-up crews that were working hard to correct any damage to Vince Bayou, a small waterway that runs for less than 20 miles from the Houston area into a shipping channel that opens into the Gulf.
Y’all come on down and enjoy some of our oil-soaked shrimp!… [emphasis original]
Inserted from <Crooks and Liars>
Big Oil continues to demonstrate that the industry cannot be trusted with the earth. It’s the only one we have.
22 Responses to “Is the US a Spillway?”
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Another reason to not allow the Keystone XL pipeline to proceed. How many more examples of Big Oil's incompetence does Washington need to force its eyes to open?
Electing pols that have not sold out.
"Big Oil continues to demonstrate that the industry cannot be trusted with the earth. It’s the only one we have." You are much politer than I would be – they have proved to be consistently mendacious – ie they are lying b*****ds! I wouldn't trust any one of them to tell me what the weather is doing never mind with the safety of the environment!
Amen, Pat!
The keystone xl question is basically one of benefit versus cost. We accept 30000 dead people per year from the use of the car because of its benefits to society. Where is the benefit to keystone? It is not our oil. It will not be sold to us. True, we will refine it, but then it will be sold overseas and the majority of the money will go back to Canada. I see no benefit, just cost.
Hey Jerry, since I am a Canadian, will you still loves me tomorrow even though our chief asshat, Harper, is selling the bitumen any way he can?
Of course, Lynn. Our love knows no international boundaries.
But Jerry, we get the benefit of environmental degradation.
That's like the benefit of a kick in the head.
Oil companies have been rapacious bastards from Standard Oil's filthy business practices onward. The saddest part is watching Republican lawmakers stand by grinning from ear to ear while their own damned constituents are dunked in leaking oil. They know the weak-minded teabaggers would support their own beheadings if the right-wing masters demanded it. Off with their heads!
Very well said, Marva.
Profit at the expense of the environment and locally affected areas as well as consumers paying inflated prices at the pump. In addition, we consumers pay for the cost of clean up which the industry avoids at any cost i.e. Koch Bros….
Exactly, Richard.
Tke a good look at the photos of the Arkansas pipeline break– and picture your neighborhood– it has happened, and will happen , again and again–
I agree, and the picture above is the one in Texas.
There are multiple proposed pipelines coming to Manhattan NY – Spectra – and the Rockaway – are two among others – these are designed to bring the dirty frack gas to Manhattan, not only for internal use (and because of our poor ventilation in most apartments – is less capable of withstanding larger amounts of radon which this gas contains – which may effect most residents whose apartments are being retro-fitted for the new "dirty gas" – not to mention the history of not only leakage, but also explosions that are associated with these same pipelines throughout the US — in La Brea CA we had an explosion – if a similar one should occur in NYC – it could create a 15 block radi-us of damage – that could devastate any number of citizens – as well as property – this is an insane proposal already underway – these pipelines and this particular fracked gas is a potential death threat to many of us here in NY — but also those who live in the line of fire elsewhere – as witnessed by the 3 spills that occurred in the US just last week alone — we must demand a cease of oil for greed's sake at the risk of humanity and all living forms, not to mention that this is even more devastating to our carbon levels than are our fossil fuels – after the digs and after the potential lethal poisoning of our aquifers and after the slaughter of our wildlife and the deforestration that encompasses all of the "groundwork" for this enterprise – we are left with a relatively "clean" type of fuel – as far as burning it goes! We cannot allow this to happen — we are at a precipice re – global warming – allowing fracking will put us over the point of no return!
Amen Lee.
sorry – when it comes to this subject I go ballistic! Thanks Tom for putting this out!
No apology needed or appropriate. You're right. You're welcome.
Utah, Arkansas, and now Texas. If I'm not mistaken, all Republican/Teabagger states. How do state and federal politicians explain this to their constituents?
I read further this week that the Arkansas spill, the very same spill that had 'oil' running down the streets of an Arkansas neighbourhood, was from a #9 type line spill similar to that mentioned in the following article from rabble,ca.. . . . an older crude oil line converted to be bitumen carrying, placing stresses on the line it was never made to withstand.
http://rabble.ca/news/2013/01/mcethicaltm-enbridge-line-9-and-tar-sands-gigaproject
And from FDL . . .
http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/04/23/keystone-xl-east-enbridges-line-9-tar-sands-pipeline/
To say the least, this whole tar sands issue is being rammed down the throats of Canadians and Americans by greedy oil companies and complicit politicians in both countries.
Dilbit — I didn't know what this was so I googled it. From Wikipedia:
Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a means of transporting highly viscous hydrocarbon. Per the Alberta Oil Sands Bitumen Valuation Methodology, "Dilbit Blends" means "Blends made from heavy crudes and/or bitumens and a diluent usually condensate, for the purpose of meeting pipeline viscosity and density specifications, where the density of the diluent included in the blend is less than 800 kg/m3." If the diluent density is greater than or equal to 800 kg/m3, the diluent is typically synthetic crude and accordingly the blend is called synbit.
Read more http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilbit
If this whole deception of the tar sands doesn' get your knickers in a knot, nothing will.
Arkansas is Purple. Excellent info.