Good news. President Obama fulfilled his promise to veto the Keystone XL pipeline, but crude oil is still on its leaking and booming not so merry way.
Enbridge Energy’s Line 61 runs from Superior, WI to Illinois and already has a border crossing immune to presidential action. The line has been amped up from its initial 400,000 barrels per day to 560,000 last August and a planned expansion to 1.2 million barrels per day by 2016. The figures dwarf Keystone’s planned 800,000 barrels per day. It’s the largest tar sands oil pipeline being developed by the most accident prone distributor with the Western Hemisphere’s worst record on oil spills.
The oil boom booms loudly with explosions at refineries and explosions on the rails. The big one in West Virginia had a trainload with three million gallons derail and explode into a huge fireball. Wetlands in North Dakota were impacted by two other spills. Pipelines have a history of rupturing and leaking. What’s the answer?
Speed the transition from fossil fuels and just leave them in the ground.
More on Line 61:
http://www.wisconsingazette.com/wisconsin/xxlbreakwisconsin-pipeline-dwarfs-keystone-and-affects-every-waterway-in-the-state.html
http://wuwm.com/post/wisconsin-pipeline-slated-surpass-keystone-xls-proposed-capacity
Some Disasters:
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/02/19/3624759/disasters-all-the-time/?awesm=a.ran.org_p1E