It’s hard to know what to say about the massive explosion and oil fire that occurred this weekend on the Quebec/Maine Border when a Canada Rail train hauling crude oil jumped the track triggering massive explosions and fire.
The little town of Lac-Megantic in the Eastern Townships lost dozens of buildings in the fire, and a toll in human casualties has yet to be determined.
What caused the derailment remains shrouded in mystery. It is interesting though, that the train had been parked some distance from the town prior to the accident, and there was no one on board.
Nevertheless, it can be predicted that, rather than acknowledge that exploiting our relentless appetite for oil is the ultimate cause of this and all the other refinery and oil spill disasters, the fossil fuel industry will undoubtedly try to capitalize upon this tragedy in order to make its case for pipeline transport.
But that’s a load of fertilizer. Enabling the pipeline would just mean further enabling the destructive potential of fossil fuels.
As in the case of nuclear energy, the justification for continued use of these dirty fuels is that they are “cheap;” but as this accident dramatically demonstrates, collateral costs are enormous.
Those collateral costs do not normally include accidents, of course; but they are substantial, including healthcare costs related to asthma, cardio-pulmonary stress and other diseases aggravated by air pollution.
They include the impacts on plant and animal life, which not only represent environmental losses but also have real economic significance.
And when a spill or a fire does occur, the scale of its impact is enormous.
Imagine if that train had been carrying solar panels or wind tower components instead of crude oil.
So bear that in mind when this incident becomes the argument du jour for allowing pipelines carrying vast new reserves of the filthiest oil products to snake through every corner of America.
From this diary:
http://www.greenmountaindaily….
This comes on the heels of Canada pressuring US, esp here in NE to provide access to pipelines to move their poisons elsewhere, and they are facing stiff opposition. Keystone another issue here.
http://www.pressherald.com/new…
Really suspicious of this. Canada is becoming mighty pushy in their demands to use US border states as their private source for transportation or whatever they may want or need to further their energy production goals.
Seems a little too convenient.
Train was “driverless”??? Why??? Hmm. Hinkymeter is fried.
-emphasis added
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/…
Difficult to apply brakes if there’s no driver.
Comment from above linked story:
The official plan for the VY waste was to put it on trains and send it to Yucca Mountain. What could possibly go wrong???
This morning’s report (via NPR/CBC) identified the cargo as “crude oil” and tar sands/shale oil obtained by “fracking” and coming from North Dakota, headed for a refinery in St. Johns.
The report also said that freight trains were the transport method of choice for this cargo.
So, are the folks who deem this event “suspicious” suggesting or implying that some operative hired by the pipeline companies got on the train, released at least some of the brakes and then jumped off when the train started to roll?
Granted, regardless of whether “equipment failure,” “human error,” or “industrial sabotage” is identified as causative, of course the Pipeline People will take advantage of this opportunity to tout the relative “safety” of their means of transport. I mean, dead fish aren’t dead people, or at least not for a decade or three.
NanuqFC
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. ~ Richard P. Feynman
are always more important than the intended effects.
I wrote a post in Minor Heresies on this recently; researchers found that the health care costs of emissions from fossil fuel electricity are greater than the production costs of electricity. (14 to 35 cents per kWh)It could be as much as 6% of GDP.
Humans being fallible, expect more explosions. It’s part of the externalized cost of oil.