More Environmental Damage From "Big Oil"

There has been a lot of talk recently about how oil (and other fossil fuels) are ruining our environment by cars and plants pumping pollutants into the atmosphere. It is not only making our air unbreathable in places, but it is also fundamentally changing the environment in negative ways. But the oil companies are also damaging our environment with their product before they even get it to the refineries.

Everyone has heard of the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico last year, which dumped millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf and caused damage to the environment which it will take many years to recover from. This was just the big spill that made the news. The truth is that most of the Gulf wells leak at least some oil.

Then you have the tanker disasters that occur every so often. The worst one in this country was the wreck of the Exxon Valdez in Alaska a few years ago, but they happen more frequently than the oil companies would like to admit. But perhaps the most common environmental damage from oil is a result of pipeline breaks. Now there is a new pipeline leak, this time in a very pristine area of the country.

A pipeline belonging to ExxonMobil has sprung a leak and fouled the Yellowstone River in Montana with crude oil (see picture). It is believed that at least seventy miles of the river have been affected by the oil leak. ExxonMobil says it has shut down the section of the pipeline with the leak, and they are currently trying to locate the leak and fix it.

Governor Schweitzer says, "The parties responsible will restore the Yellowstone River." He seems to have a lot more faith in Big Oil than I do. he might want to remember that ExxonMobil promised to clean up Alaska also, but then fought that responsibility tooth-and-nail in court.

It might be time to rethink the major pipeline that Big Oil wants to build from Canada through Texas. This would be an even larger pipeline than the one in Montana, and would completely bisect this country -- running through several states. This might be a boon to the big oil companies, but with their record-profits, oil subsidies, and record of paying no taxes, I'm not at all sure they need more help. The one thing we can be sure of with a pipeline is that someday it will break.

Isn't it time to wean ourselves off of oil -- both foreign and domestic?