Justin Mikulka Posts

"Bakken petroleum: the substance of energy independence." If you think that sounds like the latest branding from the oil industry’s public relations efforts, you might be right. However, it isn’t an ad — it is the title of the congressional hearing on Bakken oil on Tuesday. What was originally billed as a scientific discovery on the potentially dangerous properties of the material now features zero actual scientists (but plenty of lobbyists).

In 2009, Matt Taibbi wrote a piece in Rolling Stone in which he described the investment bank Goldman Sachs as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” Apparently, tar sands oil smells like money.

Rail cars move more oil than pipelines like the proposed Keystone XL. And the cargo is much more concentrated. The combination spells (spills) disaster.

Documents released to DeSmogBlog by the Washington State Military Department reveal that both the Department of Transportation and rail companies attempted to pressure states, including Washington, to keep information about Bakken crude oil trains from the public. While rail companies have been asserting that information about the frequency and routes of Bakken oil trains was “security sensitive,” the Federal Railroad Administration and the Transportation Security Administration were saying the opposite.

The oil and gas industry is helping write the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) – on both sides of the Atlantic. The ecologically-minded don't stand a chance.

Much like the Lac-Megantic accident that killed over 40 people, companies across North America are misclassifying the explosive oil in their cargo. While the engineer whose lapse caused the Lac-Megantic derailment faces life in prison, the CEOs of these companies are getting off nearly scot-free. "Do I think I can hurt a major international corporation with a $2 million civil penalty?" an industry regulator asked. "No." It's even less effective when the fines are in the $5,000 range, as they often are in the U.S. Should these offending CEOs be jailed?