The cost of oil addiction

Ignoring Native American Nation’s treaty rights and the health of the people on the path of the black snake, Plains All-American is perpetuating the myth “fracking is making America great.” Last week, the newspaper article “Wall Street Tells Frackers to Stop Counting Barrels, Start Making Profits,” makes it clear what many people know. There is a glut of domestic oil stored in Cushing, Okla., and more is on the way. Frackers are burning money, trespassing on private land, and threatening our survival. Who’s running this circus?

Diamond is a private pipeline for Valero

Diamond is a low budget operation. Building and running a tanker truck unloading facility in Damascus, Ark., and a Memphis facility to load tanker trucks, without having 10-year shipping contracts makes no sense. Posting shipping rates from Damascus does not prove oil companies will benefit from Diamond. Is posting the rate all they plan to do?

Diamond’s path of destruction

Diamond has done great damage clearing a 100-ft. wide, 440-mile floodpath. The topsoil, trees, and vegetation on 5,300-acres are gone. Using bulldozers to clear the right-of-way, removing all vegetation and topsoil without providing storm drainage protection, is a great example of dumb engineering. Capturing and storing carbon dioxide and protecting the soil is something that happens in the forests over many years, as long as the trees and the soil remain undisturbed. Now that carbon sink is gone forever, and there is nothing to stop the rain.

Diamond is 100-years of carbon emissions and toxic spills.

Now Diamond plans to run this private pipeline, pretending toxic chemical “leaks and spills” will never happen. The documents presented to the Arkansas Public Service Commission are biased, false, and incomplete. Plains All American’s chemical trail is widely known, caused by irresponsible management practices and their failure to pay for damages. “Keep pumping until it leaks, and use lawyers when it spills,” describes PAA’s pipeline operations.

The price of oil is wrong

With never-ending subsidies paid with our taxes, the Oil & Gas industry will increase our addiction to oil. The cost of fossil fuels must include the social cost of emissions: air pollution, groundwater pollution and depletion, and climate disruption. Clean air and safe drinking water are taken for granted… until they are gone. Sea levels rising, extreme floods and wildfires are unimaginable unless you have friends in Houston, Puerto Rico, Florida, or Southern California.

What can you do?

Dr. James Hansen and other climate experts say we still have a chance to avoid climate disaster if we stop burning fossil fuels. Dr. Hansen is asking everyone to think how we can act together to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and remove carbon dioxide. Dr. Hansen is also reminding us what will happen if we don’t.

Take a sheet of paper and write down your name and your spouse’s name on the top row, then your children’s names, and if you are lucky the grandkids. Better yet, paste together several sheets to make a poster size display and place pictures of your family. In terms of time, you are looking at around 120 years. These are the people at risk, the ones you love, the kids asking for the right to have a home. There is no time to wait. Please see https://tinyurl.com/No-emmisions for details.

Our Children’s Trust

How much do you know about the Climate Kids filing a lawsuit against Trump? “Juliana v. United States is about climate action. The 21 young plaintiffs and the organizational plaintiff Earth Guardians assert the U.S. government, through its affirmative actions that cause climate change, has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.” Please see https://tinyurl.com/Juliana-US a video presented by Climate Matters from the 2017 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP23.

Citizens Climate Lobby

The Arkansas chapters continue working in support of carbon-fee-and-dividend. With more than 400 chapters and 90,000 members in the U.S. and growing in other countries, they are beginning to be heard in the House and Senate.

Dr. Luis Contreras