Exxon Oil Pipeline Failure

We have all the same images that we have come to expect with oil spills--usually they are on coastlines, but Arkansas became an inland sea of oil over the weekend.  Pictures of vast quantities of oil in places where it doesn't belong abound (despite efforts to keep the press away).  The heart wrenching pictures of unsuspecting wildlife caught in the mucky goo, most of them to die of it, but often not until they have been washed and manhandled by people attempting to save them.

Exxon admitted yesterday that they have sopped up 12,000 gallons so far--how much of that is oil versus water is yet to be determined, but given that they have yet to get the place spotless, that would be about 15% of the daily capacity of the Pegasus pipeline.  The Sierra Club puts the oil on the ground at 86,000 gallons, which would be the better part of a days worth out in people's yards and streams and who knows what else.

Now, it is entirely possible that the proposed Keystone pipeline would not suffer from the problems that the pipelines that were built in the 1940's and 1950's are subject to, and maybe it isn't fair to compare the two--but the timing of this spill is not good for porponents of pipelines as a way to have oil travel.  I personally would far rather see the money spent on updating the national grid, modernizing power throughout the country, increasing solar and wind more broadly, and burying our power lines--because global climate change is here to stay, and we might as well start dealing with it.

The pessimist in me says that until we empty all the oil out of the ground we are not going to relent on that as an energy source, no matter what the consequences, both long and short term, are.   We do have to talk about compensation to people whose lives and property are disrupted or ruined as a result of pipeline failures.  Sad, and all too predictable.