It is becoming pretty clear that the technology to clean up oil spills and leaks is far behind the technology of drilling. I predict that we are just entering the era of massive oil disasters. By the time the numb-nuts who rule us (corporations and their political henchmen) figure out that the earth can not sustain such disasters it will be much too late. And there will be no more middle class in the United States to milk for funds. Perhaps the middle class in Europe and China will be willing to be taxed out of existence. It will be a long time before the super wealthy (that class created by corporate greed) will pay anything. That is the one sure thing about this whole sorry state of affairs. I'm afraid that the earth will be a garbage dump by the time the majority of dupes are willing to grasp their future and create an equitable and sustainable means of ruling themselves. I'm a pessimist and see the earth half empty. But even those who insist that it is half full will be singing a different tune in the near future. I've lived most of my life staying away from politics--it's such a nasty game. But I've lived long enough to see the degradation of planet earth. As a back-packer and lover of nature I'm getting to the point where I yearn for the 'good old days'. And in the last few years I've come to believe that the only solution is a world-wide revolution that will wipe out the whole idea of corporate wealth and those who benefit from it. For those young enough to fight such a revolution, I say look to the military. This power source needs to be infiltrated and won over to the idea of human survival by means other than killing innocent men, women and children. As a species, we need to be figuring out how to feed these 'collateral masses', not kill them.

Let me guess there will be another oil spill off the coast of California next.

That way we will have oil all around us.

WHAT A COINCIDENCE WE KEEP HAVING ALL THESE OIL SPILLS.

JUST ALL MISTAKES RIGHT?????

where is the pipeline maintenance? our infrastructure was built with the middle class and government investments, and now it is crumbling.

for peace and sustainability

It's "real nice" this company has two homes, more than a lot of people in the USA, one in Calgary and one in Houston. That must make it easer for the big shots to hide out when the heat is on. Hey, isn't that "just lovely?"

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It's "real nice" this company has two homes, two more than a lot of people in the USA, one in Calgary and one in Houston. That must make it easer for the big shots to hide out when the heat is on. Hey, isn't that "just lovely?"

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Not only are we addicted to oil, but now it looks like we're getting marinated in the stuff too...

Any yahoo who has worked in the oil industry will tell you that "clean-up" just isn't one of those things they teach you in "oil" school. Considering that most folks have never spent time on a rig, either surrounded by water or planted on land, it is no wonder that they haven't a clue as to the filthy state of this sort of energy. I worked on a rig 150 miles into the Gulf of Mexico, back when I was still in my 20's. Started as a roustabout and then a Roughneck, working on the drilling platform, operating one of the high pressure tongs that places the pipe. During my roustabout days one of my jobs, in addition to fueling the diesel generators and engines,(another "dirty job") was washing the decks at night. Right, everything washed right over the side. The mud, that the mud machine sends into the hole to keep the pressure on...nasty stuff, burns your skin, and it ends up in the water. Every rig in the gulf is a nasty thing, a poisonous blemish, a toxic producer, even if the well head is stable and no oil is spilling. At night, the rigs would wash down and purge toxic filth, that way no rig can be held responsible.
With the exception of a few engineers, the majority of the folks working on the rig are mostly high school (maybe) educated men who throw beer cans on the side of the road when they are empty. The idea that this form of energy can be "CLEAN" is a load of crap. It is not possible to make it "clean", that ain't gonna happen.

And...ianplank, "WHAT A COINCIDENCE WE KEEP HAVING ALL THESE OIL SPILLS. JUST ALL MISTAKES RIGHT?????"

Not sure what you are suggesting here? Thinking perhaps that a pod of environmentalist are trying to make a statement is foolish and reeks of FOX programing. I wouldn't totally throw out the idea of environmental terrorism, but the perpetrators I would imagine would step from the door of multi-national corporations and perhaps "terrorist" from countries we have had our boots in, and there are plenty of those. I suspect however, if it looks to you like there are an unusual amount of oil spills ...well, this isn't unusual. The unusual thing is it is now being reported. If you spend even the smallest amount of time looking up the number of spills that are actually recorded, you would be dumbfounded. No I suspect the reason you are posting "all these oil spills", is that you are not aware of the Catastrophic state of this energy source. The state of our world is in crisis, wars, and unsustainable practices that cover the whole spectrum. George Markley, I agree, human survival is at issue here and we won't make it without a bio-diverse planet. If I weren't laughing I'd be crying.

Peace

Just a reminder to this old Indian one of our vehicles needs an oil change.

Life is good. What an experience! It's always best to forgive.

Get on it Granholm. Words are cheap. I don't want to see tv news coverage and video of 3 people standing around supposedly cleaning up, yes just three, and the panned long view of a mile of thick oil slick up the river. NO DNR trucks. No authority. No list of actions. What the hell are you doing?

And the DNR "spokesperson" saying it "probably" wouldn't make it to Lake Michigan, our greatest freshwater resource. Fools!

Granholm is Canadian and so it this lousy company Enbridge with most of the pipeline in the upper midwest. They are huge. The action on environmental cleanup should be extraordinary and it is practically non-existent. Lets see it damn it. This affects the health of all of us- not just some insane profits for stockholders.

Get on it Granholm and AG COX! You want to be governor after Granholm- fine. Prove yourself up to it. You did not go after Enron for our lost pension money.

Call up Governor Bobby Jihad from the oily swamp state for some help. And don't forget the Bounty, the quicker picker upper.

there is no excuse for the oil spills i am a plumber and there should be a cut off valve on gas pipes, water pipe's.....Any pipe............ It cost 400 dollars more to put a extra cut off on oil pipes but they will spend billions a trillions of tax payer money to fix it because obama is just like a momma and spends too much money we don't have.

They didn't plan on preventing spills because it will allow them to raise oil prices........ duuhhhh

"ENBRIDGE: The Toxic Terrorist"
from stardust

Within a year, I do predict
our future in Oil BLACK.
It flows now fast past Battlecreek,
Earth life cannot fight back.

BLACK, BLACK, our future world,
Earth life will slip and slide.
For Mankind is incompetent,
all this from corporate pride.

It's not the first time, YOU, Enbridge
have saturated land,
Your pipeline work is criminal!
TERRORISTS---out of hand!***

In spite of the cited super fund site, this river is home to oxbow wet lands and annual flooding fens that support a large array of riverine, marsh and seasonal wetlands that are essential for an untold interweaving of species and systems of life, including human. It winds through the southern part of the state out into Lake Michigan through rather impressive wetlands and lakeside dunes that divide the small artist and tourist havens of Saugatuck and Douglas. Like many of the little lakeside Lake Michigan towns, these are summer retreats struggling with over development and its associated environmental challenges.

The dune systems that run from Chicago all the way up the east coast of Lake Michigan to the Straits of Mackinaw are unlike any in the world. I would ask that people take a look at a map of Michigan's western coast to get a birds-eye idea of what is at risk should this oil slick and others to follow, due to poor environmental regulation, enforcement and legislation, be unstoppable as they make their way into the big sweetwater lake. What would one larger accident or a series of such catastrophes do to an absolutely one-of-a-kind ecosystem of moving sand dunes, some that tower 300 feet over the lake and are divided by small and large rivers and fiord-like "inland" lakes that drain the entire western side of the state and that are, again, a prime feature of the state's largest healthy industry, tourism?

A patchwork of state and federally managed public lands and parks are all that protects some of the most spectacular examples, while runaway development has already destroyed much of the Great Lake and inland lake shores and the rivers and wetlands that feed and filter the water that flows through and into them. We have already had to fight off bizarre schemes that suggest that oil and gas wells should be sunk at a diagonal from the beaches to get at the minerals under the waters of the Great Lake.

Currently oil and gas companies are proceeding to lease land from poor farmers all over the state to go ahead with subterranean fracking types of mineral extraction. Another kind of mining that leaves behind huge ponds of toxic tailings that no one knows quite what to do with, as well as a large percent of irretrievable toxic waste in the water tables underground. All waters in Michigan flow into the Great Lakes. I cannot imagine what an accident involving these highly toxic ponds would mean to the largest repository of fresh water on the planet, which is, even then, a relatively small and easily impacted geological feature.

I fear for these waters should especially a Republican be elected in the next election, although I have to add that the most progressive environmental legislations and protections in my memory happened under Republican governor Bill Milliken. Alas, there are few if any Republicans of his kind remaining and the Dems, similar to their ilk across the country, are spineless and fearful to push for anything that would annoy the millionaire mineral thieves. Currently a sulfide mining operation is being started a few miles from the Lake Superior shore in the Upper Peninsula by the British company Rio Tinto... an operation that has already been recognized as inadequate in its plans for protecting the surface and subterranean watersheds, which it will use to squeeze out nickel and copper from some of the oldest surface rock formations on the planet.

Soon, I expect, everyone will be wringing their hands about the destruction of the relatively pristine waters that run into Lake Superior from this mine. No sulfide mining operation has been successful in preventing long long lasting water table damage. Due to this, similar operations have been prevented in Wisconsin and elsewhere.

We are made of the same stuff of soil, water, and air. We are a part of the environment yet ego acts differently. Whose in charge? Choose wisely.