General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsQuebec's Lac-Mégantic Oil Train Disaster Not Just Tragedy, But Corporate Crime
http://www.commondreams.org/view/201/07/12At the root of the explosion is deregulation and an energy rush driving companies to take ever greater risks
by Martin Lukacs
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The crude carried on the rail-line of US-based company Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railway "fracked" shale oil from North Dakota would not have passed through Lac-Mégantic five years ago. That's because it's part of a boom in dirty, unconventional energy, as fossil fuel companies seek to supplant the depletion of easy oil and gas with new sources sources that are harder to find, nastier to extract, and more complicated to ship.
Like the Alberta tar sands, or the shale deposits of the United States, these energy sources are so destructive and carbon-intensive that leading scientists have made a straightforward judgment: to avert runaway climate change, they need to be kept in the ground. It's a sad irony that Quebec is one of the few places to currently ban the "fracking" used to extract the Dakotan oil that devastated Lac-Mégantic.
But fossil fuel companies, spurred by record profits, have deployed a full-spectrum strategy to exploit and carry this oil to market. That's one of the reasons for a massive, reckless increase in the amount of oil shipped by rail. In 2009, companies shipped a mere 500 carloads of crude oil by rail in Canada; this year, it will be 140,000.
Oil-by-rail has also proved a form of insurance against companies' worst nightmare: a burgeoning, continent-wide movement to block pipelines from the Alberta tar sands. A group of Canadian businessmen is pursuing the construction of a 2,400-kilometre rail line that could ship 5m barrels of tar sands oil from Alberta to Alaska. Companies are also trucking it and entertaining the idea of barging it down waterways. This is the creed of the new energy era: by any means necessary.
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ellenfl
(8,660 posts)cali
(114,904 posts)I posted it yesterday but like almost everything posted about this tragedy, it received little interest. I hope it receives more with your posting.
The environmental clean up:
http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/M%C3%A9gantic+Months+long+cleanup+crude+lies+ahead/8649196/story.html
The issues:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/commentary/lac-megantic-its-not-trains-vs-pipelines-but-why-were-relying-on-oil/article13105827/
Oh, And I still stand with the Engineer, Tom Harding, who has been made the culprit.
http://o.canada.com/2013/07/12/tom-harding-train-engineer-lac-megantic/
G_j
(40,371 posts)this is a very big deal! Someone needs to be asking what kind of future we are looking at.
byeya
(2,842 posts)that if the crew set the mechanical brakes on the individual cars, that would hold the train in place even if the air and/or hydraulic brakes of the engines failed.