So, you want a pipe line? Jobs? Addendum: Ok veto the XL, it doesn’t matter.

Addendum below.

A very interesting article at Daily Kos has been posted.   Title: There’s been HOW many Pipeline spills in Alberta in the last Four Months?

Seems the Canadian news system does not find oil, gas and toxic water spills from the mining of carbon fuels to be news worthy.   But, the native Indian sure find it news worthy.  Their news outlet, West Coast Native News has been tracking all the spills.   You know, it’s their yard getting contaminated.

The Kos article quotes WCNN:

Over the past year WCNN has reported on many Crude oil and Toxic produced water spills all over Alberta, in fact we have reported over 600,000 Litres of toxic crap that has been spilled just last month and yet not one mainstream media outlet has picked up the incidents. So lets take a look back at just the last month (October) and see just what the mainstream is not telling you.

Of that 600,000 liters (165,107.5 gallons or 3931 barrels) 136,000 is crude oil.   That is, for us non metric thinkers, 35,927.4 gallons or 855.41 barrels of crude oil spilled in one month.  How long has there been mining in the area with pipeline transportation?

You can go here to get the raw data from the regulatory agency, Alberta Energy Regulator. In October, there were a total of 46 spills reported, whether from wells or pipelines, with 23 being pipeline spills. Among these pipeline spills, four involved crude oil. Overall, there were 10 crude oil spills, inclusive of those originating from pipelines. The remaining spills comprised various mixtures such as water (salt or fresh) with petroleum, raw gas releases, and contaminated water, among others. Notably, none of these spills were classified as having an emergency status phase. It’s worth noting the importance of industrial painters Perth in maintaining the integrity of pipeline infrastructure to prevent such incidents.

The author of the article at Daily Kos writes:

I noticed that in the report of an incident document, every single report mentions that no effects to wildlife or waterways occurred… WHAT??

Interesting?

Examples of 3 reported pipeline failures:

Release of emulsion from a pipeline migrating to a low dry bog area. Fluids have been contained, and company has started deliniation and cleanup. Area will be fensed off to limit wildlife access. No reported impacts to any water body or wildlife.

Release of Crude Oil due to a pipeline failure. Clean up is underway. No reported impacts to a waterbody or wildlife.

Release of Crude Oil due to a pipeline failure. Mitigation including sampling and removal impacted vegetation . No reported impacts to a waterbody or wildlife.

So, we’ll be getting jobs alrighty.  They will be clean up and repair jobs involving environmental personnel and tech/science jobs for those trying to find ways to clean up this mess to that there are for real ” No reported impacts to any water body or wildlife.”  Jobs for those tech/science people figuring out how to transport the cleaned up toxic waste with out spilling it.    And jobs for those manning the toxic waste disposal facilities.  And jobs for those transporting the toxic waste.  Then we’ll have jobs for the lawyers sorting out the civil suites do to pollution and the lawyers lobbying congress to keep it all under wraps.  And jobs for the advertising agencies, those trying to make the public aware and those trying to blind the public (probably more of these later that the former).  Jobs for those trying to figure out how to get fresh water to the public.   (Remember, those around the Great Lakes are all ready saying no way to pumping from there.)  There will probably be a new area of agriculture over time: Farming in the oil polluted environment.  You know, for all those farmers who might find their land changing over time considering the route of the XL.

Yup, the XL pipe line sure is a jobs creation program.

Addendum:

In comments Rjs noted that there is already a pipeline in existence that the State Department appears to have simply looked the other way about.  From Eco Watch:

… a new investigative report by editor Lou Dubose at the Washington Spectator reveals that the construction of a “Keystone XL clone” pipeline with almost the same capacity is already taking place.

The Alberta Clipper is an already-existing pipeline with a 450,000 bbl a day capacity. In November 2012 Enbridge applied for the permit to ramp up capacity to 800,000 bbl for the pipeline which runs from Alberta to Wisconsin to Oklahoma to the Gulf Coast where the oil will be refined and exported. Fed up with delays, the company wrote to the State Department last June, telling it that they planned to go ahead with upgrades with or without a permit.

The State Department has denied Freedom of Information Act requests in what the Spectator said “appears to be a deliberate effort to keep the press and public in the dark.” It said that the Sierra Club had filed such a request in March and was denied. Environmental groups have announced they will sue the State Department for working with Enbridge to circumvent the legal process.

“Enbridge applied for a permit a year ago [sic], then in June informed the State Department that the process was taking too long. So they came up with their scheme to avoid, to try to avoid, the State Department permitting process and expand the pipeline immediately. And the State Department basically looked the other way and said, ‘That’s fine with us.’

Enbridge is the company behind the July 2010 oil spill on the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history, when a segment of its pipeline ruptured. Three inspections over the previous five years had detected a defect in the pipeline which the company had not repaired because in its judgment it did not reach required repair level under federal standards. It did not provide this information when an Enbridge executive testified about pipeline integrity and spill detection to a House committee ten days before the rupture. And it has repeatedly fought attempts to require safety measures to protect communities and the environment against the impacts of possible spills.

So go ahead President Obama and veto that XL.  It seems your State Department has your back just like your other departments.

See people, the two parties are working together.  It is just that the method is designed so that we don’t recognize the joint effort do to the layers of performance theater over the actual work that they are accomplishing.  It’s probably because the desired outcome that both parties want is not what their constituents want.  And the liberals and conservatives think they have nothing in common.