Midwest Oil Pipeline Disaster Spreads; California's Love Affair with Big Oil Continues

Midwest Oil Pipeline Disaster Spreads; California's Love Affair with Big Oil Continues

by Dan Bacher

Damage from a massive oil pipeline spill in Michigan is worsening today, as an estimated one million gallons of crude oil spread through a tributary of the Kalamazoo River towards Lake Michigan, threatening drinking water and habitat, according to a statement from the Sierra Club.

"How many oil disasters will it take before we wake up?" said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune. "We're still reeling from the tragedy in the Gulf Coast. Now the Midwest is facing another massive spill as the result of an unsafe pipeline."

Oil from this faulty pipeline is now spreading towards Lake Michigan and threatening drinking water. Worse, there's a chance that the oil could release other contaminants from the already polluted river sediment, making the situation much more serious, according to Brune.

"This disaster comes right as the federal government is considering a proposal to build a massive new pipeline that would carry the world's dirtiest oil from the Canadian tar sands across the Midwest," he stated. "The proposed Keystone XL pipeline would jeopardize an aquifer that is the most important source of water for the High Plains region-America's breadbasket. Clearly, we can't afford to take that risk."

"It's time to heed the lesson from these oil disasters. Instead of going to greater and riskier lengths to support the oil industry, we should be investing in the kind of clean, safe energy that will keep our waterways intact and help infuse new life into our economy," said Brune.

Brune noted that Michigan in particular stands to benefit from investment in clean energy technology like electric cars. New plants to build electric car technology are already opening in the state. Instead of worrying about oil-tainted drinking water, communities in Michigan could be seeing an explosion of good, lasting, clean energy jobs.

"These oil disasters are a wake up call. The price of dirty energy is simply too high. We need our leaders to deliver a bold plan to end America's dependence on oil and put America on the path to become a leader in the global clean energy economy," concluded Brune.

In California, Governor Arnold Schwarzengger's Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative is developing and implementing a series of so-called "marine protected areas" that do nothing to stop an environmental catastrophe like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill or the Michigan pipeline spill from taking place. The MLPA, in a parody of true marine "protection," has completely taken oil drilling, pollution, corporate aquaculture, wave energy projects and all other human uses of the ocean other than fishing and gathering off the table.

The MLPA Initiative, while denying California Indian Tribes their sovereign right to gather and fish as they have done for thousands of years, would not stop deep water drilling off the coast. In fact, many believe that the MLPA paves the way to new oil drilling off the California coast.

The chair of the MLPA Blue Ribbon Task Force for the South Coast, Catherine Reheis-Boyd, is the president of the Western States Petroleum Association (WSPA). She is also on the MLPA panel for the North Coast and sat on the task force for the North Central Coast. In recent months, Reheis-Boyd has repeatedly called for new oil drilling off the California coast, in spite of the disaster taking place in the Gulf.

Oil and water don't mix. California and the nation's love affair with Big Oil must end.

For more information about the Midwest , got to: http://www.sierraclub.org/dirtyfuels, http://www.beyondoil.org