Even if it is not expanded, it is not so much a question of if
more oil spills happen, but when.
Speaking of spills, here is perhaps the most disturbing statistic of all: There was
more oil spilled from freight trains last year than in the previous four decades combined.
Not exact matches
The public outcry from an environmental disaster such as an
oil spill or violating the pay laws of your employees will cost your business much
more than the expenses of being socially responsible.
I expect, however, that there will be three first - order effects that will be very similar to those that followed the BP
spill: 1) increased public consciousness of the dangers inherent in transporting
oil and
oil products and
more aversion to having these products moved nearby; 2) increased calls for alternatives to
oil rather than alternative means of transporting
oil; and 3) decreased trust in regulators» and firms» abilities to sufficiently mitigate risks from transporting
oil.
The BP
spill led to
more regulation (although not as much new in the U.S. as some would like) and less investment in the U.S. offshore
oil industry than would have otherwise been the case, and these changes were likely compensated for with increased investment elsewhere.
Both pipelines face two forms of opposition: widely dispersed environmentalists worried about climate change, and stakeholders along the route
more concerned about
oil spills.
Sometimes, the harm is overt, like in the case of BP's
oil spill, but often it's
more subtle, like when employees invest hope and time in a project that fails.
Adding to their fury is the
spill from the Keystone pipeline just last week, which saw
more than 200,000 barrels of
oil spill from the pipeline in South Dakota, shuttering a large section of the conduit for days.
«You're going to have
spills when you have
more activity,» Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council, told a reporter with the investigative journalism organization Pro Publica, which documented
more than 1,000 accidental
oil spills in North Dakota in 2011.
The array of claims around Alberta's crude is wide and varied: on the one hand, anti-Keystone groups contend that dilbit — i.e. diluted bitumen, thick oilsand crude mixed with light hydrocarbons that will allow it to flow through a pipeline — is
more corrosive than other types of
oil and sinks in water rather than floating, which makes it harder to clean rivers and lakes after a
spill.
More than 800
oil spills happened in the mid-Atlantic region during the same time period, according to a 1973 Coast Guard survey.
That was followed in 2012 by Victoria newspaper publisher David Black's much
more ambitious but somewhat speculative Kitimat Clean project, consisting of a $ 25 - billion
oil refinery in the northern town that would create jobs and taxes in B.C. while ensuring that the exports were of finished products rather than the diluted bitumen from the oilsands whose behavior in the case of a marine
spill is virtually unknown.
Exxon Mobil issued a release saying the company was responding to a
spill of
more than 10,000 barrels, and that some 4,500 barrels of
oil and water had been recovered.
The study, in fact, does not address the issue of whether a dilbit
spill, once it has happened, has
more serious consequences than any other
oil spill.
Incidents involving death or safety, like Toyota's TM, -0.02 % faulty air bag recall or the 2010 explosion of a BP BP, -0.03 %
oil rig and
oil spill in U.S. waters, were
more catastrophic in terms of consumer fallout.
By comparison, the supertankers that will be loaded at the Westridge Marine Terminal will each carry about 575,000 barrels of
oil —
more than double the Exxon Valdez
spill.
In the event of an accident, Kinder Morgan has pledged to do no
more than comply with federal laws, which stipulate that operators of a major
oil pipeline in this country must have a minimum of $ 1 billion in financial resources available to cover liabilities related to a land
spill.
Ottawa could withhold funding for affordable housing, public transit,
oil spill cleanup and
more — unless Premier John Horgan buckles.
One
spill is too many but pipelines are much safer than rail for transporting
oil By Kenneth P. Green, Elmira Aliakbari and Ashley Stedman The Fraser Institute State regulators in... Read
more»
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP)-- The U.S. government has fined Enbridge Inc.
more than $ 1.8 million after accusing the Canadian
oil transport company of missing deadlines for pipeline inspections following a gigantic
oil spill in southwestern Michigan.
At issue is whether Lehman's crisis was merely a temporary «liquidity problem,» that time would have cleaned up much like BP's
oil spill in the Gulf; or, did the firm suffer a
more deep - seated «balance sheet problem» (negative equity), as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke claims — a junk balance sheet, composed of assets that not only had no buyers at the time, but had no visible likelihood of recovering their market price even after the $ 13 trillion the Treasury and Federal Reserve have spent to bail out Wall Street.
The news from the Gulf
Oil Spill keeps getting
more and
more depressing.
They always need
more young blood to be
spilt on
oil fields.
The
oil spill keeps getting
more ridiculous.
Did you know that the sea around the UK is home to
more than 8000 different of species of plants and animals, but this wonderful marine environment is being ruined by pollution, including rubbish left on beaches, sewage and chemical and
oil spills.
The sample size lotion and
oil bottles could be
more user - friendly and reduce
spills with a pump or squeeze applicator.
In 1989, Shedd's rescue team was in Alaska in the aftermath of the disastrous Exxon Valdez
oil spill, helping to rehabilitate
more than 200
oil - drenched sea otters, including pups.
Check it out, or read
more from Epolitics.com about social media and the BP
oil spill.
One
more bit of YouTube today, though this one's audio - only rather than video: a rewrite of Lady Gaga's «Bad Romance,» but this time with lyrics about the BP
oil spill.
On top of the online reporting system for damage from the BP
spill we looked at earlier, here's
more crowdsourcing from the Gulf: a group called Grassroots Mapping is helping folks on the coast map the extent and at least some of the effects of the
oil slick.
Also published on The Huffington Post On top of the online reporting system for damage from the BP
spill we looked at earlier, here's
more crowdsourcing from the Gulf: a group called Grassroots Mapping is helping folks on the coast map the extent and at least some of the effects of the
oil...
A British court on Thursday blocked pollution claims against Anglo - Dutch energy giant Shell by
more than 40,000 Niger Delta residents demanding action over decades of
oil spills in the region.
The governor's office even posted a Webcam to broadcast the vetoing — a feature that
more than one Capitol staffer likened to undersea video of the BP
oil spill.
- Administering the New York State and Local Retirement System for public employees, with
more than one million members, retirees and beneficiaries and
more than 3,000 employers; - Acting as sole trustee of the $ 129 billion Common Retirement Fund, one of the largest institutional investors in the world; - Maintaining the State's accounting system and administering the State's $ 12.6 billion payroll; - Issuing reports on State finances; - Managing the State's assets and issuing debt; - Reviewing State contracts and payments before they are issued; - Conducting audits of State agencies and public benefit corporations; - Overseeing the fiscal affairs of local governments, including New York City; - Overseeing the Justice Court Fund and the
Oil Spill Fund Acting as custodian of
more than $ 9 billion in abandoned property and restoring unclaimed funds to their rightful owners;
Even after the financial meltdown, the BP
oil spill and the Massey mine disaster, these guys still want
more deregulation.
«New smart coating could make
oil -
spill cleanup faster and
more efficient.»
The Security Project calls for the Defense Department to be much
more involved in the region to match the militaries of other Arctic nations, and questions whether current policy frameworks, such as an Arctic strategy released by the Coast Guard this year, will be enough to prepare for potential
oil spills, accidents and shipping traffic challenges.
A new USC study takes a cue from leaf structure to fabricate material that can separate
oil and water, which could lead to safer and
more efficient
oil spill clean - up methods.
The layered approach helps the coating components bind and function better, and the
more durable the coating, the
more affordable it is to scale up for major
oil spills.
Traditional chemicals that disperse
oil spills can harm marine life
more than the
oil itself.
That
spill took
more than a year to stop, spewing an estimated 140 million gallons of
oil into the Gulf.
Studies arising from the Exxon Valdez
oil spill suggest that fish are
more sensitive to hydrocarbons than previously thought
«Due to global warming,
oil exploration in the Arctic has become feasible along with the shipment of
oil through the Northwest Passage, the water body between Canada and the Arctic that used to be frozen throughout the year, but has now become open for navigation in the summer,» noted Boufadel, a professor of civil and environmental engineering who specializes in the impact of
oil spills on coastal regions and,
more generally, on
oil behavior in diverse environments.
BOULDER, COLORADO — As the gulf
oil spill grows, scientists here are refining models of the slick's behavior in hopes of developing a
more accurate picture of its future movements.
The panel urged
more work as well to determine the environmental impact of
spilled crude
oil in high - risk and poorly understood areas and sensitive ecosystems, such as Arctic waters and shores, inland rivers and wetlands.
More precisely monitoring dolphins with seafloor recordings could provide new insight into how these animals respond to environmental problems such as
oil spills and the long - term effects of climate change.
While the world waits to see if a «top kill» operation can seal off the devastating Deepwater Horizon
oil leak in the Gulf, the staggering proposition of dealing with the
more than 11 million gallons of crude
spilled to date remains.
This loss left the entire marine ecosystem
more vulnerable to damage from the five - million - barrel Gulf
oil spill in 2010.