Ban the Bomb Trains

Frackers and tar sands advocates are having a problem getting their deadly products to markets.

People are fighting against the pipelines: KXL is pretty much a dead deal and people are now becoming aware of the back door pipeline that they want to use to get the oil to Texas for refining and export.

The Constitution Pipeline in Eastern NY is under constant attack for environmental reasons (wetlands) and passing too close to a nuclear power plant. (If that plant weren't deadly enough on its own.)

The Northern Access Pipeline is running into many problems from activists in Wheatfield and Pendleton. (They don't want the noise or the fire hazard from the compressor.)

So the oil barons have only one choice left – trains.

And people are protesting the “bomb trains” as they have become known – no thanks to a fiery explosion in Lac-Mégantic Quebec that destroyed numerous houses and businesses and killed 47 people.

And good old Senator Schumer thinks he has a solution – get the old and unsafe single hull tanker cars off the tracks and use different tanker cars to haul the oil.

There is only one way to safely handle tar sands oil and fracked oil and gas.

And that is to leave it in the ground.

Plain and simple.

The process of producing the oil and gas is deadly and unsafe for the people that live around the areas and the workers. Just look at the cancer rates of those people and that alone should be enough to end the discussion. Add to that the water, land, and air contamination and it's a real case closed argument.

That is, if anyone would listen.

And the only way to process the tar sands and fracked oil and gas is to use highly deadly and toxic chemicals. How deadly? So deadly that the companies won't release what chemicals they use and in what concentrations (claiming “trade secrets.” Seriously. All someone has to do is test the water of a contaminated well and they know how much benzene, etc is being used.)

So the companies want to ship that deadly soup by rail, across rural communities that are under burn bans, and through cities. Pull out a map of Buffalo and look at the rail road tracks and rail yards. Not a much as was in the early 20^th Century, but still enough that a fire could prove dangerous and costly.

Look at the fire at Ft McMurray in Alberta. Do we want to risk that in Eastern NY's mountainous terrain or anywhere in WNY or Central NY? None of those areas are friendly to fire fighting. Then again, no field fire is friendly to fire fighting.

And then there are the rail bridges that go over the Niagara River and into Canada. Imagine a rail disaster over the Niagara River? Clean up the mess that goes over the Falls. Can you say “economy killer?” No one is going on the Maid of the Mist or other tour boats with that mess barrelling down the river. (Don't bother telling me how much water goes over the Falls. I know. It's the psychology of it all.)

So, what needs to be done?

We need a green energy economy that puts an end to dependence upon oil and gas. We need a New Deal driven plan that helps us put more solar panels, wind turbines, and tidal turbines into use. (For that matter, I hear that the winds between the skyscrapers in NYC get pretty blustery. Any way to capture and utilize that wind? Small urban turbines. Coming soon to the side of a skyscraper near you.)

We need to leave the tar sands in the land, leave the oil in the soil, and stop fracking for gas.

If I want gas that bad, there are plenty of greasy spoon and hole in the wall restaurants that I can stop in at.

Then again, given the dangers of methane gas and global warming, perhaps I should avoid them too.

Just like we need to avoid the bomb trains.