Another miracle
An Exxon pipeline passing through the massively flooding Yellowstone River in Laurel, Montana -- just west of Billings -- broke the other night. About 1,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into the river, creating, at one report, a 25-mile plume. People were evacuated from their homes, to get away from the fumes. The pipeline has been the site of safety concerns for some time, and it had already been shut down once during the current flooding.
I've actually gone out on the Yellowstone near there once. The Mrs. and I were staying at the world headquarters KOA in Billings, and we took a ride on a jet boat powered by a local guide. It's some beautiful country, or at least it was.
But cheer up, world! Exxon says there's no harm to wildlife, and the oil is no longer in the water. What colossal liars. The fact that nobody goes to jail for this sort of behavior is another dark sign on a day set aside for national celebration.
| Posted at 12:22 PM | Permalink |
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Comments (6)
Feelings. Nothing more than feelings.....
The spill came just weeks after the company shut down the pipeline in May after the City of Laurel had safety concerns due to the rising levels of the river from rain and runoff.
"At the time we shut down the line... and went down did a further risk assessment to make sure the site based on technical knowledge we had was something we'd feel comfortable to run," Pruessing said. "We restarted the line feeling like we had a safe operation." he added.
Montana Governor Schweitzer reviewing oil, gas pipeline safety
By Laura Zuckerman and Emilie Ritter | Reuters – 11 mins ago
http://news.yahoo.com/montana-governor-reviewing-oil-gas-pipeline-safety-192223219.html
Posted by Mojo | July 4, 2011 1:17 PM
Face it, there is no rule of law for those who can buy justice and politicians. The question is, once they get done destroying the planet, just where to they think their kids will live and survive?
Posted by LucsAdvo | July 4, 2011 1:26 PM
when they lie so blatantly why is there any reason to believe them when they say the spill was 1000 barrels?
Posted by none | July 4, 2011 1:37 PM
And by all means, let's fast track those LNG lines through pristine forest and watersheds. Its all very safe.
Posted by Ex-bartender | July 4, 2011 4:31 PM
Governor Brian Schweitzer vowed on Tuesday to cling to Exxon Mobil like "the smell on a skunk" for as long as it takes to get the company to clean up a weekend oil spill that fouled an otherwise pristine stretch of the Yellowstone River in Montana.
Exxon oil spill on Yellowstone River disrupts farms
By Emilie Ritter
HELENA, Montana | Tue Jul 5, 2011 10:51pm EDT
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/06/us-oilspill-montana-idUSTRE7646DX20110706
Posted by Mojo | July 5, 2011 10:13 PM
Thanks to the sellouts we have in Congress and elsewhere clearing the channels making it easy to have the money trump all, at the expense of the health of all life on our planet,...how did this go so awry?
Did it begin with little matters, then got big and bigger until it became so enormous and back to devour us; as a snake eating its own tail?
Posted by clinamen | July 6, 2011 10:26 AM