http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/my-place-is-destroyed-albertan-in-wake-of-red-deer-river-oil-spill/article4241238/ (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/my-place-is-destroyed-albertan-in-wake-of-red-deer-river-oil-spill/article4241238/)
I guess Windy is having a shitty day at work.
To put it mildly. He's probably bitching up a storm right now.
I had never heard of these oil spills in Alberta before. This really changes my opinion of a pipeline across BC. Most people would go for it if it was a very remote, like 1 in 20-30 years chance of a spill, if there have been several its a big no go until they get their shit together.
Trouble is, like most other provinces and states, the goverment of BC doesn't want to foot the bill to ensure regulations are being followed so they either download the costs onto municipalities or politely ask the corporation to voluntarily police itself. The municipalities can't afford it because they've already been forced to pay for water and health regs that the province is forcing them to pay for and comply with. The corp won't pay because that cuts into profits. End result is that we get a lot more spills, most of which go unreported.
If we could end collusion between the lawmakers in the legislature and the stateless corps who are paying them off and reinstate effective and rational regulatory measures, then a pipeline might not be a bad idea. Although I'm opposed to shipping unrefined product overseas only to have us buy the refined stuff back at a greater cost. We should have our own refinery at the end of the pipeline, next to the port.
Won't happen though. The Liberals hired a bunch of thugs from ENRON back in 2003 in order to privatize BC Hydro and allow Run-of-the-River energy projects to fuck up our rivers and jack up power prices. They enacted Bill C-30 which stripped municipalities and regional districts of the right to determine land and water use restrictions. They'll use the same bill to force the pipeline through over local objections. The Feds gutted the environmental review process in their last budget bill, so there'll be no recourse there, and because this is a multi-national project, Chapter 11 rules under NAFTA will allow foreign entities to block any attempt at regulation as being "harmful to potential profits."
After the Liberals get trounced in the next provincial election, they senior olicy makers will all get nice cushy jobs on the boards of various oil companies and we'll get stuck with the clean up bill.
It's not that simple. There is a reason everybody ships crude, including places like Saudi that could do whatever they want. The refined product is dangerous.
All thoe more reason for a nation with rule of law like ours to properly regulate the production and shipping of said material rather than shipping refined stuff in from the States or some dodgy dictatorship.
This spill is really creating some media noise..... I wonder how many times it has happened in the past ? Regardless, I'm sure Windy is getting things under control!
Hmmm,
I am a Strategic Relationships Senior Adviser aka POGO (... we have seen the enemy...), *not* a enforcement field monkey or an emergency response adrenaline fiend.
All the hub bub is overblown a tad, but yes it does look ugly.
Pipelines once in the ground typically last 50+ years, so they do have a finite lifespan. Alberta's oil industry is going on 50 years so we have aging infrastructure issues. There will be more breaks as we have thousands and thousands... and thousands of miles of pipelines, big and small - and they are getting older. Many thought the oil would be long exhausted and we'd have inactive pipelines, but @ 80-100 dollars a barrel there is still lots of life in them thar oil fields.
The relationship between oil and politicians is an interesting one.... oil wants profits & politicians wants jobs and royalties. Typically they are all very myopic until the shit hits the fan enough times then they look up at whats slapping them in the ass hard. AGW and oilsands impacts have taken our sleepy little province and shoved it into the world limelight... we can longer ignore world opinion.
I get steamed at the hypocracy of the ranchers bitching about the oil in their stream making the water undrinkable.... previous to this incident there was unfettered access to the streams and the cows would shit in the river and beat up the stream banks making it toxic to other cattle who drink out of it. The net result will be that during this crisis the weight gain in their cattle will be 5-15% better than otherwise (but you can't tell Stupid a damn thing about changing their practices)
Quote from: Windigo on June 12, 2012, 12:38:51 AM
Hmmm,
I am a Strategic Relationships Senior Adviser aka POGO (... we have seen the enemy...), *not* a enforcement field monkey or an emergency response adrenaline fiend.
English translation please!
so Windy is in effect saying that the pipe that he's laid is old and crusty.
Quote from: GDS_Starfury on June 12, 2012, 10:45:38 PM
so Windy is in effect saying that the pipe that he's laid is old and crusty.
she was laid way before she caught my attention ;-)
Quote from: Mr. Bigglesworth on June 12, 2012, 05:14:53 PM
Quote from: Windigo on June 12, 2012, 12:38:51 AM
Hmmm,
I am a Strategic Relationships Senior Adviser aka POGO (... we have seen the enemy...), *not* a enforcement field monkey or an emergency response adrenaline fiend.
English translation please!
I am not field staff, I don't write tickets nor administer penalties. I do however try to lay the case of prudence and preventative maintenance at the feet of my political masters and petroleum industry representatives.
Interesting side note was that for most of this year, their was a 35 dollar a barrel discount at the main midwest pipeline terminal for Alberta crude.... raise your hand if you saw that 30% discount in your gas purchase (we are your #1 supplier of crude oil)
Actually, apparently we get our oil from North Dakota now. But yes, prices have been somewhat lower here in Minnesota because of it.
Quote from: Martok on June 13, 2012, 01:15:36 AM
Actually, apparently we get our oil from North Dakota now. But yes, prices have been somewhat lower here in Minnesota because of it.
That's tight oil in shale down there. Thank horizontal formation fracturing techniques for that. Uses a pornographic amount of water to do it too.
"Fraking" is all ya hear on the CBC down here at times..... drives me crazy. Every time I hear the term, I turn the radio up thinking it's about BSG!
If you want to get a good overview of frakking, the June 2012 issue of Popular Mechanics has a good article explaining it and the ND Bakken fields.
http://www.popularmechanics.com/archive/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/0/10 (http://www.popularmechanics.com/archive/science/energy/coal-oil-gas/0/10)