nicholas vanderborgh

Dear Friends:

We rejoice in the President's action to further review pipeline options. 

However, the fact is that tar sands are being produced and processed making a large amount of black goo, called heavy crude. Previously, when we liked Hugo, we got much the same stuff from Veneuzuela, and the oils spent big bucks to build chemical processing hardware in Texas to manage that black goo.  But in one of our righteous America-first tirades, we walked away from Hugo and turned to a reliable, US resource, the tar sands in Canada. One million barrels a day is being produced there, every day.

The general idea is that the US will get real about not driving, no jobs and no money.  So, US petroleum consumption is expected to fall. The plan is to ship the heavy oil stuff to hungry global customers.  The deal is the Chinese get the fuel, we get the pollution.  And, the international cartel which we call the oil industry gets the profits. 

The tar sands crude is being shipped today by rail.  Those huge strings of tank cars.  Rail cost more, but freight rates are adjustable. So, maybe the real pipeline deal is to scam the obsolete US railroads from a little revenue. Or, maybe to make them cut their rail rates. The big deal with trains however, is that trains are modular.  Even in a bad wreck you would think that only a handfull of tankers would break open and spill.  Not a nice event, but one on the surface, visible.  Given enough diapers, even the oils can clean it up.  Moreover it will be noticed quickly, so probably cleaning up is easier, before the stuff has time to spread through an aquifer.

In any event, the real issue facing the nation is liability.  Corporations now play the charade that they are citizens, limited liability and all.  Seems like the real change we need to make is to take away limited liability and make investors liable for what the companies do.  And, then we need to make it the case that all costs for a tar sands crude spill are paid for.  If water is ruined, other clean water is substituted for as long as it takes. If adults become ill from the goo and cannot work, then the companies provide support for their families.  If farmland is ruined, that farmland is purchased at its original (before the goo) value, and those funds go to the farmer so he can start over elsewhere, and the company keeps the land as a remembrance of commitments and what it really means to be a responsible citizen of the US. Isn't the real issue here that we citizens are required to accept all the downside risk of corporate mistakes?