Chevron continues to decimate the Amazon.  The wildlife in the Gulf of New Mexico still struggles to survive after the BP spill.   Conocophillips, the second largest extractor of Tar Sands, has turned Alberta Canada into Mordor.

The tailing ponds are so large they can be seen from space.

And now Shell admits to the world it was responsible for 204 oil spills in the mighty Niger River in 2014 alone.

GOI – Eiser Eric Dooh toont de ruwe olie die de oevers van de kreek door zijn dorp Goi (Ogoniland) heeft aangetast. Meerdere lekkages in een pijpleiding van Shell hebben de kreek over een lengte van vele kilometers zwaar verontreinigd, waardoor vis en ander leven uit het getijdengebied zijn verdwenen.

Is it any surprise that we are teetering on the cusp of what scientists are predicting to be the 6th Great Extinction?  Is it any surprise the divestment in fossil fuels is the biggest activity in Wall Street?

And THIS is the company that is heading to the Arctic right now to “drill, baby, drill.”

To learn more about these spills and to send a letter to Obama telling him to get tough on Shell’s plans for Artic Sea, click here:

https://secure.sierraclub.org/site/Advocacypage=UserAction&id=16027&s_src=915FSRSP07_NSRSR&sp_ref=130372589.5.14332.f.58490.2&s_subsrc=fb

Washington, D.C.  April 21, 2015

New EPA guidelines (prompted by a 2013 lawsuit by the Environmental Integrity Project on behalf of Air Alliance Houston, Community In-Power and Development, the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and Texas Environmental Justice Advocacy Services) have determined that flares at refineries and chemical plants emit about four times more volatile organic compounds (VOCs) a smog-forming air pollutant than previously reported.

EPA also found that Fluid Catalytic Cracking Units at refineries emit more than 10 times more hydrogen cyanide per year, releasing more than 3,000 tons more of this powerful neurotoxin each year than previously reported, and more than one third the combined total of all hazardous air pollutants refineries reported to the Toxics Release Inventory in 2013.

http://environmentalintegrity.org/archives/7260

May 18, 2015

From KPIX news

An “unplanned shutdown” …an extremely dangerous situation (pre-explosion) yet no community warning system was activated. Why not? 

If you saw the flare, please complain to BAAQMD:  There are two ways to file a complaint:

• Fill out an online complaint form, or
• Call the 24-hour toll-free complaint hotline at 1-800-334-ODOR (6367)

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/05/18/refinery-flare-at-phillips-refinery-in-rodeo-visible-for-miles/

By Reuters

Seven Groups (including Sierra Club, Center for Biological Diversity and Forest Ethics) say the rules, issued on May 1, would allow the industry to continue to use unsafe tank cars for up to 10 years.

The kids playing on a basketball court in Philly are just a few of the 25 million folks    who live in a bomb-train sacrifice zone 

“We’re suing the administration because these rules won’t protect the 25 million Americans living in the oil train blast zone,” said ForestEthics executive director, Todd Paglia.

MEANWHILE…. the American Petroleum Institute’s sues to stop the safety program and asks for a different safety program …based “on science.”

By Rachel Levin, Bloomberg News

http://www.bna.com/crudebyrail-60day-challenge-n17179926392/

By John Barber (The Guardian, Toronto)

It was bound to happen. Arboreal forests were turned into surreal, toxic moonscapes. Unemployment soared as the capital intensive — not labor intensive — industry got a free ride, thanks to a low, Big Oil friendly tax structure.

 Not quite as low as in America, mind you — where oil industry pays no federal taxes, but bad enough to bring dark economic times to a province …. that should have been rolling in the dough.

Looks like folks in Alberta got fed up.  And it looks like tough times ahead for the KXL pipeline and the Enbridge Northern Gateway plan.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/06/canada-alberta-elects-leftwing-party-keystone-pipeline

From the Nebraska Star Journal (story compiled from wire reports)

The governments of the USA and Canada just proposed in their new “safety” regulations which will conveniently end public disclosure requirements regarding volatile crude oil shipments.

The regulation actually states (emphasis added): 

“The transportation of oil by rail can …avoid the negative security and business implications of widespread public disclosures of routing and volume data.”  

Heaven forbid we should know what the rolling bomb trains are bringing into the neighborhoods and densely populated urban centers across America.

http://journalstar.com/business/agriculture/new-rules-bar-disclosure-of-oil-train-traffic-and-routes/article_8ce32183-8fdf-5b9b-8b10-59bab380033e.html

And really can you blame the Feds for wanting to keep us in the dark?  When people are informed, they fight back, as they did up in North.  Check out this documentary that Bill Maher produced last year.   Welcome to our world.

Click below…it begins after a brief commercial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpXfQMFR_Qs

By Matthias Gafni, Contra Costa Times (April 12, 2015)

P66 is surrounded by 3 faults (San Andreas, Rogers Creek and the Concord fault)   Yet the EIR downplayed the significance of a future earthquake.   On the Other SIde of Reality, the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) just issued a report that states that all the refineries up the Bay and along Gasoline Alley are at serious risk due to the interelationship of numerous faults below and nearby refinery infrastructure.

The big worry: oil piipelines failing due to soil liquefaction. Knowing pipeline material, age, weld types and other factors would help scientists know where failures are “more likely,” but that information isn’t available.”  

Also cited as a serious concern: The Benicia-Martinez rail bridge, located between the two vehicle spans which could face “significant or complete damage.”

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_27895052/little-known-concord-fault-poses-big-threat

By Karina Ioffee, Contra Costa Times

Are American Rail Roads adequately insured for catastrophic accidents?  In July 2013 an explosive derailment took out the center of the town of Lac Megantic and claimed 47 lives. The RR company was insured for $25 million but went belly up when the costs exceeded its coverage.  Taxpayers in Quebec got stuck with the $1 billion clean-up bill.

Could that happen here?  That and many other questions asked by residents last night remained unanswered.  CalEPA organizers left the Crockett Community Center with a long “to-do” list.  Suffice it to say, there will be more meetings in the future.

http://www.contracostatimes.com/bay-area-news/ci_27801760/residents-pushing-more-information-crude-by-rail

MARTINEZ, CALIFORNIA

Communities for a Better Environment (CBE) filed a lawsuit this morning, alleging illegal approvals of a Tar Sands refining project that could worsen  pollution, climate, and refinery and rails explosion hazards.  Further, it alleges that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) deliberately hid the many of the aspects of the project from the public and failed to mitigate its significant environmental impacts.

The action follows the February 3rd, 2015 approvals for Phillips’ “Propane Recovery Project”.  The Phillips 66 project is part of an industry-wide switch to new oil supplies that is playing out across the region as California and Alaskan crude supplies dwindle.

According to refinery expert Greg Karras of CBE:

“Community and worker experts have shown it is the cheap-and-dirty oil project the (P66) CEO bragged about,” said CBE’s refinery expert Greg Karras. “Lighting the fuse on this bomb could have significant impacts, and no one should be thinking about building it before that potential harm is disclosed and addressed.”

To see the full press release and the lawsuit filing, click on the link below:

Lawsuit filed TODAY to Stop Tar Sands in the Bay Area!

You just can’t get tar sands (bitumen) sludge through pipelines.  Most train terminals are hundreds of miles away from the extraction fields.   How get the sludge there? Mix in some “diluent” so the sludge can move through the pipelines. The combination of diluent (28%) and bitumen (72%) creates a thick black cocktail the oil industry calls “dilbit“.

The problem?  Dilbit has a much lower flash point than raw tar sands. In fact, it has an ignition point at -35ºC, compared to -9ºC for conventional light oil.

As per RailwayAge website:   “The widespread belief that bitumen from Alberta’s northern oil sands is far safer to transport by rail than Bakken crude is, for all intents and purposes, dead wrong.”

Here are 2 articles that lay it all  out:

From RailwayAge (written by David Thomas): http://www.railwayage.com/index.php/safety/why-bitumen-isnt-necessarily-safer-than-bakken.html

From Oil Change International (By Andy Rowell): http://priceofoil.org/2015/03/02/transporting-tar-sands-dangerous-shale-oil/