Deformed Seafood In the Gulf and A Deformed Demand to Green LightKeystone April 23, 2012 By Joe Rothstein Editor, EINNEWS.com Let s talk today about a Tale of Two Stories. Two stories that have been in the news during the past few days. Story 1 is Mitt Romney s pledge that if the White House continuesto oppose the Keystone pipeline project, I will build thatpipeline if I have to myself. Story 2 comes out of various news sources that sea life in the Gulfof Mexico appears to be far more impacted than cheery TV ads paidfor by BP would have us believe. First, let s talk about Keystone, which has become a metaphor forRepublican energy policy.
Listening to Romney s Machoman talk, you would think that Keystoneis, in fact, key to U.S. energy independence and that PresidentObama is obstructing that pipeline because he s under the spell ofenvironmental radicals. Therefore, Romney will go into a phonebooth, suit up for the USA, and clear the way back to $2 a gallon. Things happen like that in comic books.
But in real life the issueis a lot more complicated. The business case for building Keystone XL, freely admitted by itsfinancial backers, is to move Canadian crude to the Gulf of Mexicowhere it can be refined into diesel and other products and shippedto Europe and Latin America. Much of the pipeline s contents willnever feed U.S. filling stations. Double Girder Overhead Cranes
As for lowering costs, Trans Canada s own permit filing statementanticipates an increase in the price of the heavy Canadian crudethat would add nearly $2 billion in revenue for the Canadian oilproduction industry. Authoritative estimates translate this into a20 cent a gallon increase in the U.S. Midwest. There are serious questions about the way Keystone would impact theU.S. Segment Lifter
energy supply, how many jobs it would create, and what affectthe project would have on prices at the pump. Then there are the environmental concerns, and those concerns arenot just figments of environmental radical imagination. In fact, the first delay in the permitting process for Keystonecame from the Republican governor and Republican legislature ofNebraska, properly anxious that the pipeline route would endangerunderground water supplies for much of the region. Bowing to theseconcerns, TransCanada altered its proposed route. China Double Girder Overhead Cranes
Pipeline leak fears are not unfounded. In fact, in July 2010, apipeline carrying Canadian crude dumped nearly a million gallons ofraw tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan which thensaturated backyards, farmland, marshes and businesses. Fortunately,the oil was contained before it reached Lake Michigan, wheregravity was steering it. Which brings our tale to Story 2, what s happening in the Gulf. Nearly five million barrels of oil and two million gallons ofchemicals to help disperse that oil flooded the Gulf of Mexicoafter BP s offshore drilling platform exploded and sank.
BP hassince run a massive campaign designed to assure us all that themess has been cleaned up and the Gulf is back, better than ever.Coastal state governments and the federal government have mostlybacked up BP. What s the choice? To admit that a fishery thatprovides the U.S. with 40 percent of its seafood is seriouslycompromised by the pollution of all those chemicals? But last week a number of stories leaked out of the Gulf areaindicating that things are not okay with either those who worked toclean up the spill or with the fishery ecosystem that took thebrunt of it. Dozens, if not hundreds of people have tested positive for havingBP s chemicals in their bloodstreams. Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene andhexane are volatile organic chemicals present in the BP crude oil.In addition to surface affections of nose and throat irritation andmore severe nausea and vomiting, those chemicals in the bloodstream are known causes of liver and kidney damage and damage tothe human nervous system.
There s growing concern for those mostexposed to these chemicals, a grim replay of physical problems anddeaths recorded after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Meanwhile, Gulf fishermen are pulling up all manner of strangestuff: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores,underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and more.Shrimpers are complaining that white shrimp colonies havedisappeared and the brown shrimp catch is one-third its normalvolume. More ominously, what s called killifish, which feed largerspecies, also seem to have been compromised, with yet unknownimpact on the entire commercial food chain. Now let s tie the tale of these two stories---Keystone Pipelineand the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster---together. Mitt Romney and the Republican congressional chorus want Keystoneauthorized now, today, without further economic or eco-systemresearch.
The White House, so far at least, is holding its ground, arguingthat a decision to move ahead at this point would beenvironmentally irresponsible, and questioning just how large aneconomic benefit the project would produce for the U.S. in realterms: jobs, oil supply and growth. One look at what s happened to the Gulf of Mexico, where amulti-billion dollar fishery, millions of livelihoods and countlessindividuals are at risk over a single industrial mistake, shouldgive everyone pause about taking a similar gamble with thenation s agricultural breadbasket. We take gambles all the timeabout nearly everything, but it s foolhardy to gamble withoutknowing the odds.
What are the odds for failure of the Keystone Pipeline? Theyaren t zero. What would be the costs for a Michigan-like pipeeruption? They aren t trivial. Until we know more, it would be total malfeasance for PresidentObama to rubber stamp Keystone. And until we know more it sirresponsible of Mitt Romney to keep demanding that the Presidentshould. (Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com).
Listening to Romney s Machoman talk, you would think that Keystoneis, in fact, key to U.S. energy independence and that PresidentObama is obstructing that pipeline because he s under the spell ofenvironmental radicals. Therefore, Romney will go into a phonebooth, suit up for the USA, and clear the way back to $2 a gallon. Things happen like that in comic books.
But in real life the issueis a lot more complicated. The business case for building Keystone XL, freely admitted by itsfinancial backers, is to move Canadian crude to the Gulf of Mexicowhere it can be refined into diesel and other products and shippedto Europe and Latin America. Much of the pipeline s contents willnever feed U.S. filling stations. Double Girder Overhead Cranes
As for lowering costs, Trans Canada s own permit filing statementanticipates an increase in the price of the heavy Canadian crudethat would add nearly $2 billion in revenue for the Canadian oilproduction industry. Authoritative estimates translate this into a20 cent a gallon increase in the U.S. Midwest. There are serious questions about the way Keystone would impact theU.S. Segment Lifter
energy supply, how many jobs it would create, and what affectthe project would have on prices at the pump. Then there are the environmental concerns, and those concerns arenot just figments of environmental radical imagination. In fact, the first delay in the permitting process for Keystonecame from the Republican governor and Republican legislature ofNebraska, properly anxious that the pipeline route would endangerunderground water supplies for much of the region. Bowing to theseconcerns, TransCanada altered its proposed route. China Double Girder Overhead Cranes
Pipeline leak fears are not unfounded. In fact, in July 2010, apipeline carrying Canadian crude dumped nearly a million gallons ofraw tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan which thensaturated backyards, farmland, marshes and businesses. Fortunately,the oil was contained before it reached Lake Michigan, wheregravity was steering it. Which brings our tale to Story 2, what s happening in the Gulf. Nearly five million barrels of oil and two million gallons ofchemicals to help disperse that oil flooded the Gulf of Mexicoafter BP s offshore drilling platform exploded and sank.
BP hassince run a massive campaign designed to assure us all that themess has been cleaned up and the Gulf is back, better than ever.Coastal state governments and the federal government have mostlybacked up BP. What s the choice? To admit that a fishery thatprovides the U.S. with 40 percent of its seafood is seriouslycompromised by the pollution of all those chemicals? But last week a number of stories leaked out of the Gulf areaindicating that things are not okay with either those who worked toclean up the spill or with the fishery ecosystem that took thebrunt of it. Dozens, if not hundreds of people have tested positive for havingBP s chemicals in their bloodstreams. Ethylbenzene, m,p-Xylene andhexane are volatile organic chemicals present in the BP crude oil.In addition to surface affections of nose and throat irritation andmore severe nausea and vomiting, those chemicals in the bloodstream are known causes of liver and kidney damage and damage tothe human nervous system.
There s growing concern for those mostexposed to these chemicals, a grim replay of physical problems anddeaths recorded after the Exxon Valdez disaster in Alaska. Meanwhile, Gulf fishermen are pulling up all manner of strangestuff: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores,underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and more.Shrimpers are complaining that white shrimp colonies havedisappeared and the brown shrimp catch is one-third its normalvolume. More ominously, what s called killifish, which feed largerspecies, also seem to have been compromised, with yet unknownimpact on the entire commercial food chain. Now let s tie the tale of these two stories---Keystone Pipelineand the BP Gulf of Mexico disaster---together. Mitt Romney and the Republican congressional chorus want Keystoneauthorized now, today, without further economic or eco-systemresearch.
The White House, so far at least, is holding its ground, arguingthat a decision to move ahead at this point would beenvironmentally irresponsible, and questioning just how large aneconomic benefit the project would produce for the U.S. in realterms: jobs, oil supply and growth. One look at what s happened to the Gulf of Mexico, where amulti-billion dollar fishery, millions of livelihoods and countlessindividuals are at risk over a single industrial mistake, shouldgive everyone pause about taking a similar gamble with thenation s agricultural breadbasket. We take gambles all the timeabout nearly everything, but it s foolhardy to gamble withoutknowing the odds.
What are the odds for failure of the Keystone Pipeline? Theyaren t zero. What would be the costs for a Michigan-like pipeeruption? They aren t trivial. Until we know more, it would be total malfeasance for PresidentObama to rubber stamp Keystone. And until we know more it sirresponsible of Mitt Romney to keep demanding that the Presidentshould. (Joe Rothstein can be contacted at joe@einnews.com).