New Oil Drilling Won't Help US

In addition to the Keystone leaks, we had the 2010 BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico (they had 2 in Alaska in 2006); in 2007 an Enbridge pipeline leaked 1,500 barrels of crude in Wisconsin; in November 2007 a line caught fire and killed 2 workers in northern Minnesota; in January 2008 its Lakehead system spilled 2,237 barrels in Neche, North Dakota; in mid-2010 20,000 barrels leaked into Michigan's Kalamazoo River; there were 14 other incidents before the end of July 2012 when a an Illinois pipeline ruptured and a Wisconsin pipeline leaked about 1,200 barrels and causing the evacuation of 2 houses and "veterinary attention" for horses and cows. Exxon Mobil's Silvertip line had a 2011 spill in Yellowstone County, Montana and was shut for 85 days and another in Louisiana is still shut after a leak. On March 24, 2012 it was reported that Salt Lake City, Utah residents were suing Chevron over oil spills. So, it’s true that oil pipelines running through our country have been leaking and poisoning our farmland. With the recent bill that allows drilling off the coast of Virginia the pipeline and damaged land issue will get worse. In addition, our electric, oil and gas lines have computer control systems and on May 8, 2012 a group of hackers mounted a cyber attack on gas pipelines.

In pulling information from news, oil and government sites I discovered that the last time a new oil refinery came online was 1976, US refineries have been reduced from 158 to 124 (2 new refineries will be added in Arizona and South Dakota) and in addition to the fuel refineries we have 13 refineries that produce lubricating products. On August 8, 2012 - 3 refineries in Illinois and Indiana were shut down due to faulty parts, there were fires at a Richmond, California (CA) and Tulsa, Oklahoma (OK) refineries but a Delaware refinery reopened after a 2 year shutdown. On October 3 the CA and OK refineries are still out of commission, a CA pipeline leaked and a fire broke out in the largest Texas refinery; millions of barrels of fuel are lost. The CA refinery produces 15-16% of the state’s specialized blend of gas for compliance to CA’s cleaner air laws and they can’t replace it with dirtier gas from other areas. The East Coast refineries, the first in the country, only deal with a better grade of oil that does not come from Canada (the Keystone pipeline or the Enbridge 236 mile Tar Sands Pipeline that runs from Canada down to Chicago through the Great Lakes, back to Montreal, Canada and to Portland, Maine for the sole purpose of shipping Canadian oil out of the country) so more bad oil from new drilling won’t help them. Because of the reduced numbers of refineries and their specific needs, when one goes down it has a bigger impact then it used to and gas prices increase. Coal, oil or gas is not the long term solution to our problem. If we are innovative and get our electricity from green/renewable energy, we and the next generations of Americans would have plenty of fuel resources and a reduction in global warming.