Pipeline Rupture Dumps Oil Into The Gulf

It looks like the oil companies are trying to create an Exxon Valdez type disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, but in this part of the world we don't even need a ship to do it. That's because we have oil pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico.

Yesterday, the Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline experienced a rupture in their High Island Pipeline System, and dumped at least 21,000 gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The company is currently trying to limit the spill and suck the remaining oil out of the pipeline.

We are lucky this time. The tides seem to be carrying the oil away from shore, and maybe it can be cleaned up before it does too much damage [except to sea life in the area, of course]. This ought to give Texans and the residents of the other Gulf states cause to rethink Gulf drilling.

Congress has recently tryed to open more vast tracts of the Gulf to the oil companies for new drilling. It was the lame duck Republican Congress and they couldn't seem to tie their own shoes, but that doesn't mean the oil companies won't keep trying to get this done.

Do we really want more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico? I can assure you that any clean-up for an oil disaster will be born by the American people and not by the oil companies. Look at Exxon. They have still not paid a penny for the Alaskan clean-up, even though it happened years ago, and there's a court judgement ordering them to pay. Recently, they got the judgement cut in half, and it'll probably be years before we see any money from that half, if at all.

The oil companies don't care about the enviornment or the American people. The only thing they care about is getting into your pocketbook for more and more money to create ever bigger windfall profits for themselves.

So I ask again, do we really want more drilling and pipelines in the Gulf of Mexico? I say no, at least until the oil companies show they will be better stewards of the enviornment they are affecting [and Exxon pays what it owes].