ExxonMobil Tar Sands Oil Pipeline Ruptures in Arkansas as Obama Ponders Fate of Keystone XL

[DeSwiss]

democracynow·Published on Apr 1, 2013

ExxonMobil continues its cleanup efforts after a ruptured pipeline sprayed thousands of barrels of crude oil from Canada across a central Arkansas subdivision, forcing nearly two dozen homes to evacuate. The 20-inch so-called "Pegasus" tar sands pipeline burst late Friday near Mayflower, Arkansas, creating what the Environmental Protection Agency is categorizing as a "major spill." The incident is refueling calls for the Obama administration to reject the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, which would deliver tar sands oil from Canada to refineries in Texas. "It's almost as if nature was trying to send a message that it might be best to just leave this stuff underground in Canada where it's been safely for the last few million years, instead of trucking it, piping it, training it hither and yon across the countryside," says Bill McKibben, co-founder and director of 350.org. He is author of "ea[font color=green]a[/font]rth: Making A Life On A Tough New Planet."

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[SunSeeker]

1. Looks to me like Exxon just bought themselves a neighborhood.

You can't just mop up that stuff. All of the dirt has to be excavated and hauled to a toxic waste dump. If I were the homeowners, I would demad that Exxon buy me out and I would get the hell out of there.

[hog]

2. pipeline rupture

Seems like now's the time for the president to visit Arkansas....If he's serious about things like this.

[Plucketeer]

3. WHEN???

WHEN will this nation WAKE UP and demand that our elected mouthpieces speak for US?! Whaddya wanna bet this incident is gonna instigate the same HOLLOW resolve that the Newtown massacre has??? There'll be lots of excited jabber and claims and counter-claims and the Kochs will just lay on enough Bejamins to set the goo flowing again. And, of course, NO ONE will be able to see a workable, doable alternative to pumping this shit into our rivers, our roads and our air. I know I'm no genius, but I also think I'm smart enough to see how stupid we are as a society!

[blackspade]

4. These oil companies should be on the hook for all damages

present and future.

This whole tragedy demonstrates with clarity why Obama should kill this project.

[DeSwiss]

5. The Exxon oil spill in Mayflower, Arkansas.....

...has left many concerned about the state of America’s pipelines, and whether a similar catastrophe is on the way. As pipelines get older, the risks increase – but is anything being done to minimize the danger? [font color=red]The Mayflower pipeline was built in the 1940s. While that may seem surprisingly ancient to some, many of the country’s pipelines are of a similar age. [/font]

Meanwhile, White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday that he hadn’t yet discussed the Arkansas pipeline with President Obama, but insists that the government “takes the safety of our many pipelines in this country very seriously…and, in cases like these, investigations are undertaken and steps are taken to mitigate the damage and hopefully avoid them in the future.”

But the US has a history of pipeline accidents which have led to the deaths of 500 people and injured around 4,000 others since 1986. So what is the American government – and oil giants like Exxon - really doing to avoid future tragedies?

Over 50% of the nation's pipelines were constructed in the 1950's and 1960's during the creation of the interstate pipeline network built in response to the huge demand for energy in the thriving post-World War II economy,” a 2011 report by the US Department of Transportation revealed. “Some pipelines were built even earlier.”

“Approximately 3 percent of America’s gas distribution systems are made of cast or wrought iron and were built in the first half of the 20th century; over 12 percent of the nation’s cross-country gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipelines were built prior to the 1950's,” the report added.

And as pipelines grow older, the chances of accidents – such as bursts leading to oil spillages – increase. However, there is very little government regulation to keep an eye on corroded pipelines that have simply grown too old to function.

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