One oil spill is too much. Three oil spills happened in the last short week, bringing horror to humans and wildlife alike. Dirty oil, at the root of this, has no moral compass. It is a style of bullying at the worst level. If the earth did not have the resources for renewable energy that its does, this would still be wrong.

From RT: “Thousands of gallons of oil have spilled from a pipeline in Texas, the third accident of its kind in only a week. Shell Pipeline, a unit of Royal Dutch Shell Plc shut down their West Columbia, Texas, pipeline last Friday after electronic calculations conducted by the US National Response Center showed that upwards of 700 barrels had been lost, amounting to almost 30,000 gallons of crude oil.”

There seems to be a pattern of early oversight, initial denial, and initial misinformation. Then there is a classic back-stepping. Of all the things to find patterns with, this is a terribly sad pattern of dirty oil and untold harm to Earth.

RT reports: “Thursday the spill was reported by the US Coast Guard to the Dow Jones, only three days before, a Shell spokesperson said that inspectors found ‘no evidence’ of an oil leak.”

“50 barrels of oil spilled from a pipe near Houston, Texas and entered a waterway that connects to the Gulf of Mexico.” The reassurances come, “Coast Guard Petty Officer Steven Lehman said that Shell had dispatched clean-up crews that were working hard to correct any damage to Vince Bayou, a small waterway that runs for less than 20 miles from the Houston area into a shipping channel that opens into the Gulf.”

“That’s a very early estimate–things can change,” Officer Lehman told Dow Jones.





“The spill was contained, said Lehman, who was hesitant to offer an official number on how much crude was lost in the accident. According to Shell spokeswoman Kim Windon, though, the damage could have been quite significant. After being presented with the estimate that said as much as 700 barrels were found to have leaked from the pipeline due to an unknown cause, investigators determined that 60 barrels entered the bayou.”

The first account was 50 barrels. Then a report increased it to 700 barrels. What will be next? After watching the videos and photos of the poor birds covered in toxic oil due to the current Mayflower spill, one has little confidence of all of this so-called containment. It is astonishing that mild-mannered environmentalists, many notable activists, James E. Hansen, Daryl Hannah, Bill McKibben, and so many others got arrested for trying to prevent this — for trying to educate with nonviolent, peaceful protest. Peaceable awareness raising of potential harm to America’s waterways, wildlife, and water sources from Keystone XL and Dirty Oil should not be a crime. Being accountable for these constant mishaps should be a given. Animal cruelty, the exposure of humans to harmful elements, and compromising the most vulnerable of Earth’s elements, water, is the offense. This offense should be addressed through the legal system — not protected by law. Who should be restrained and locked up? Something is backwards.

Again, in continuing the report from RT, we read more of this process of mishap, denial, and back-stepping: “Another incident in Canada this week caused an estimated 400 barrels — or roughly 16,800 gallons — of oil to be compromised in northern Ontario when a train derailed. Originally, Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd said only four barrels were lost in the accident.”

Tar Sands Oil Extraction — The Dirty Truth