Tar Oil and Coal...

If you think defeating the Keystone XL pipeline will be the end of tar sands pipelines cutting through the heart of the United States, clearly you haven’t been doing enough depressing reading. While Keystone has hit some speed bumps lately, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it won approval from the Obama administration and their pals.

Regardless of whether or not Keystone XL is approved, there are loads of pipeline plans in the hopper. There is one under way that delivers just slightly less dirty Alberta sludge than Keystone, and since much of this “new” pipeline relies on repurposed natural gas pipe, there are fewer regulatory hurdles.

You may notice a “megaloads” sign in the cartoon (towards the end) and be left scratching your head. In certain parts of the United States and Canada, oil companies are shipping massive equipment destined for the tar sands through towns and along roads that are not meant for huge industrial machinery. These loads can be in the range of 25-feet wide or more, 250-feet long and 30-feet tall.
Oil companies are moving these massive loads along officially designated “Wild and Scenic Rivers” in Idaho (near where parts of my family homesteaded around 1900). While Exxon, Conoco and others attempt to establish industrial corridors through beautiful scenic territory far from any pipeline route, resistance is growing among the locals.

Be sure to dig deeper into these issues, but first, enjoy the cartoon, share, like email and do all that other good webby stuff!

http://vimeo.com/fiorecartoons/keystone-clones

Now for the Coal. The Us has a large amount of coal of differing quality, some is more pure and some has other chemical/elements in it. Coal that has sulfur will burn dirty and cause acid rain. This type of coal is restricted in the US and companies have to use a lot of equipment to clean the byproducts of burning dirty coal. But in other parts of the world there are few restrictions or the laws are simply ignored. So now a lot of coal that the US mines is now being sold to India and China, they don't seem to care so much about the environmental effects of the pollution.

The coal is mined in Wyoming and sent by rail to the Pacific Coast for shipment, now coal exporters want to build many more 'coal terminals' to handle the increase in coal sales. The transport would be by rail and the towns along the routes are in uproar over the idea of 10 to 12 trains, a mile long, rolling through their cities every day. It is not just the trains but the dust of coal that comes off the trains, and the 'lost' material that simply falls off.

Already along the train corridor there is a lot of coal dust. This isn't just a dirt problem, the coal ends up in rivers where the sulfur and mercury leach out. This pollutes the rivers and stream, not to mention exposes people to higher levels of contaminants. The proponents say it  is more jobs, but when more people become sick, those benefits will be lost on the expense of medical treatments. In the US, lately it seems that if I get a dollar today, I don't care if it costs me 10 tomorrow.