The Rude Pundit: Photos That Make the Rude Pundit Want to Down a Handful of Vicodin ...

[meegbear]

with a Wine Glass of Sweet Crude

There's many reasons we in Left Blogsylvania often look to Canada as a beacon of hope, mostly having to do with universal health care and attention actually paid to infrastructure. But, just like its big brother to the south, Canada is sucking on that oil pipeline like a just-out Iowa 21 year-old on his first trip to Fire Island. And, of course, they get to reap its bounty all over Canada's face.



That's an oil spill in a forest and river in Alberta, from underground tar sands wells, and it's been spewing for over two months. Because why the fuck not?

Back in June, the company in charge of the well declared it "mostly contained," which, nearly 8 weeks later, seems like a bit of a lie, unless "mostly" means "not really."

In Calgary, the people are mostly concerned with cleaning up after the insane floods, which will end up costing $3 billion dollars, which, these days, is a lot to everyone but, you know, the oil companies.

America could learn from America, Jr.'s mistakes on tar sands and oil pipelines. But we won't.

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[joeybee12]

1. He's right, we won't learn...knr

[Hydra]

2. The profits from dirty energy are miniscule

Compared to the environmental costs and costs to the taxpayer.

Yet somehow we got sold on the idea that this is the only option we have, AND we need to subsidize it.

...why do we let people get away with this kind of criminal behavior, and call it "good business"?

[Myrina]

4. Because there's still a few cents left to be sucked from the industry ....

.... until it completely bottoms out and becomes Zero Sum - and maybe even not then, because then the blood sucking companies can use it for tax write offs - the vultures won't explore other options.

[riverbendviewgal]

3. I am so ashamed

Canada used to be better but Harper is doing his best to sell it out to the corporations.

[navarth]

7. I am so sorry to see this

As a native of Le Detroit, Canada is very close to my heart, my grandmother was from Windsor (Sandwich, to be exact).

So sorry to see our problem cross the border. Please don't be ashamed. Solidarity. Canada is the USA's best friend in the world.

[riverbendviewgal]

8. Thanks, and you have that huge 3 story high black pile of Koch petrolium coke on your water's edge

I am sorry for that but it effects Windsor too. And our Canadian Tar sands are where it comes from...
It is called Koch Carbon.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/18/business/energy-environment/mountain-of-petroleum-coke-from-oil-sands-rises-in-detroit.html?pagewanted=all

[navarth]

13. Oh yeah, I know about it, believe me

It's like almost right across Fort St. from where I worked last summer. Took a lot of 'nature walks' along the river right near where they deposited that crap. I believe it's leaving though, seems to me I heard a story about it being moved.

Disgusting. Global Capitalism is ruining both my favorite countries. Much love to Le Canada.

[They_Live]

5. Thank you for posting this

Everybody spread this story, it is very important.

[SCVDem]

6. What is really a crime

Is that America can't use these disasters as a solid precedent to deny the KXL project.

Like nukes, if you can't fix a problem or dispose of waste, don't approve the projects!

[nolabels]

9. But they said they are cleaning it up?

Doing the math - 26,000 barrels x 350lbs = 9100000 minus the 67,400 lbs of oily vegetation they have removed indicates they have at least 9032600lbs to go.

Just to move the load to say of nothing of loading it or storing it somewhere or process would mean it would take about at least 151 tractor trailer trips but more probably closer to 500 or more when you consider you would have to remove the contamination's. With Hazmat removal trucking averaging around $3000 then it will cost 1.5 million or more to move at a minimum. But no doubt those figures will all get multiplied by the tens by the lawyers and other leveraging middlemen.

[mbperrin]

11. Plus it's still coming up. This is not a classic wellbore leak.

They have overpressured the formation to fracture it, and this time, they fractured it all the way to the surface. So when all of the injection materials AND all of the natural gas pressure are zero (30-50 YEARS from now), they will finally know how much they actually have to clean up. They can't plug it - it's the same as making an earthquake stop in the middle. It will stop when IT's ready.

They are selling this as proven technology and nothing new. It's extremely new and totally unproven. This has nothing to do with setting off a shaped dynamite charge in a wellbore to knock holes in the bore and loosen up the formation for a few dozen feet around the shot.

This is the total destruction by acid and hydraulic pressure of the natural formation so that it gives up all the petro within. NOBODY knows how far they crack, nor have any calibration to find out.

[nolabels]

12. The distance oil companies would want to go to keep their bussiness model intact should not amaze

They would and have practiced genocide to get their product. The problem i have is that even non-MSM seem to focus on minutia at the risk of missing the larger story. Thanks so much for pointing that out because that something some of us didn't know

[Scurrilous]

10. K & R