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You are here: Home / Economics / Free Markets Solve Everything / Nothing to See Here

Nothing to See Here

by John Cole|  March 19, 20147:31 pm| 39 Comments

This post is in: Free Markets Solve Everything, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You

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Sure, let’s approve Keystone:

Clean-up operations began on Tuesday after a major oil pipeline owned by Sunoco Logistics Partners LP leaked hundreds of barrels of crude oil into a nature preserve next to the Great Miami River in southwest Ohio.

Crews vacuumed oil that had leaked from the Mid-Valley pipeline into a wetland area of the Oak Glen Nature Preserve, 20 miles (32 km) north of Cincinnati, according to local officials.

The 240-barrel (10,000-gallons/38,000-liter) spill has been contained, Sunoco said in a statement.

It’s like we are moving backwards. We just cleaned up the burning river in the Mistake by the Lake, Pittsburgh’s air is now breathable, and our Galtian geniuses are now coming up with new and exciting ways to poison us all.

I am sure the free market will take care of all of this and we will be able to purchase individual water filtration systems once all our springs and city water are toxic.

Fuck you Republicans and Glibertarians.

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Reader Interactions

39Comments

  1. 1.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 19, 2014 at 7:36 pm

    We are dependent on the earth and its systems.
    We don’t know that much about how these systems interconnect and affect us.
    We should err on the side of caution.

    Unless it means (allegedly) cheaper gas and the right plutocrats get paid, apparently.

  2. 2.

    The Dangerman

    March 19, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    I am sure the free market will take care of all of this…

    It might (if we ended all subsidies for Big Oil).

  3. 3.

    John Revolta

    March 19, 2014 at 7:39 pm

    It’s like we are moving backwards.

    Only for the last thirty years or so.

  4. 4.

    Violet

    March 19, 2014 at 7:40 pm

    @The Dangerman:

    It might (if we ended all subsidies for Big Oil).

    Yep. It’s amazing when people complain about subsidies and other government assistance for solar and other green power technologies and yet insist that oil companies must be subsidized.

  5. 5.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    March 19, 2014 at 7:44 pm

    I was watching Gasland recently and there were news reports of earthquakes in Lancashire, my home County, which by the fuck had never had earthquakes before, until fracking. At what point do people say to themselves that pumping vast amounts of toxic chemicals into the ground is, you know, bad? I absolutely despair because it would seem that there a large amount of people who think that so long as you make a profit, it doesn’t matter who suffers.

  6. 6.

    kc

    March 19, 2014 at 7:45 pm

    I’ve always said if Al Qaeda just incorporated and called themselves “Al Qaeda, Inc.” they could gas and poison the living shit out of Americans and no one would lift a finger to stop them.

  7. 7.

    JPL

    March 19, 2014 at 7:46 pm

    @Violet: I told a friend, who happens to watch Fox, that the only safety net the repubs care about are for oil folk.

  8. 8.

    Litlebritdiftrnt

    March 19, 2014 at 7:47 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    At some point Mother Earth is going to decide to rid herself of the pesky fleas that are infesting her body and do something epic. I am not advocating this of course, but at some point we are going to get beyond the point of being manageable.

  9. 9.

    The Republic of Stupidity

    March 19, 2014 at 7:48 pm

    @kc: Hell… some red state legislator would probably offer them tax incentives to move their operations to his home state…

    Job creators, y’all!

  10. 10.

    Violet

    March 19, 2014 at 7:49 pm

    @kc: That would only work if they full rebranded their name away from that scary Mooslim name. Something like “AQ, Inc.” or “ALQ, Inc.” or even go full Murkin with something like “Patriot, Inc.”

  11. 11.

    ranchandsyrup

    March 19, 2014 at 7:50 pm

    @Litlebritdiftrnt: she’s done it before. she’ll do it again. James Lovelock (who frequently scares the crap out of me) put this forth in the Gaia hypothesis.

  12. 12.

    MikeBoyScout

    March 19, 2014 at 7:51 pm

    Eh, Oh, way to go Ohio

    “Last night’s pipeline rupture, and the ensuing devastation to the surrounding areas that it will cause, serves as a grim reminder that just because oil and gas drilling isn’t taking place in southwest Ohio, we can still be adversely affected by infrastructure problems brought on by oil and gas development.

    “As drilling increases in Ohio, so too will the burden on infrastructure to transport these products to market, often overseas. With the increase in pipelines cutting through our preserves and farmland, comes a greater risk of future spills and leaks.

    “Our thoughts are with those impacted by Monday’s leak, and it is our hope that damage to drinking water can be avoided,”

  13. 13.

    jharp

    March 19, 2014 at 7:51 pm

    Great Miami River area in southwest Ohio in a huge Republican stronghold if it makes anyone feel any better.

    Most likely it is in John Boehner’s district but too lazy to check.

  14. 14.

    David Fud

    March 19, 2014 at 7:52 pm

    If it is going to happen anyway, we might as well trade a carbon tax and a clean energy portfolio standard as the price. The Mustache of Understanding is usually a centrist knucklehead, but maybe this time he got energy policy right.

  15. 15.

    MikeBoyScout

    March 19, 2014 at 7:53 pm

    Video from WKRC Cincinnati here – http://www.local12.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/oil-pipeline-spill-at-oak-glen-nature-preserve-9494.shtml

  16. 16.

    Keith G

    March 19, 2014 at 7:56 pm

    Weekend canoe trips down either the Little or the Great Miami Rivers were an important Spring Quarter get-a-way for many of us at Ohio State. Of course that was a time when tree-hugging Democrats were in charge of the state.

  17. 17.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    March 19, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    @David Fud: Interesting. Proposing a trade-off may be the only way left to block it.

  18. 18.

    ? Martin

    March 19, 2014 at 7:57 pm

    The Kalamazoo River spill is the better illustration. 843,000 gallons from a tar sands oil pipeline. That particular kind of oil (the kind that Keystone would carry) is denser than water, so it sinks, and when it sinks, it’s fucking impossible to clean up.

    The spill was in 2010. They’re still dredging the river trying to clean it up 4 years later. 3 sections of the river remain closed. The Keystone pipeline would carry ⅓ more oil at a time, and therefore would spill ⅓ more for a comparably large leak. What’s another 300,000 gallons of oil?

  19. 19.

    kc

    March 19, 2014 at 7:58 pm

    @Violet:

    “Eagle Liberty, Inc.”

  20. 20.

    JPL

    March 19, 2014 at 8:04 pm

    @? Martin: Since they are transporting the oil now, what is more dangerous a pipeline or tankers? That seems to be a question that we are ignoring and I don’t know the answer.

  21. 21.

    muricafukyea

    March 19, 2014 at 8:06 pm

    I wonder if libertarian curious wr0ng way Cole sees the irony of this topic when he has been on here asking about buying a used car. I’m guessing he’s not looking for an all electric used car or even a hybrid.

    He’s probably one of these people who will bitch about pipeline spills and at the same time complain about gas prices and not fully understand the irony of that.

  22. 22.

    David Koch

    March 19, 2014 at 8:07 pm

    Bill Clinton: “We should embrace the Keystone Pipeline”

  23. 23.

    Baud

    March 19, 2014 at 8:08 pm

    @JPL:

    Agree. The whole debate is very frustrating.

  24. 24.

    Yatsuno

    March 19, 2014 at 8:09 pm

    @JPL: Train cars. On our infrastructure. Imagine the fun!

  25. 25.

    Smedley Darlington Prunebanks (formerly Mumphrey, et al.)

    March 19, 2014 at 8:09 pm

    Well, anybody who can’t afford their own water filtration system is just one of the takers, The Free Market™ rewards go-getters. Self-made supermen. Anybody who can’t keep up should just shut up and die quietly. Don’t want to upset our betters, after all.

  26. 26.

    David Koch

    March 19, 2014 at 8:13 pm

    Barack Obama: President Mocks Republicans Who Push Keystone Pipeline

  27. 27.

    JPL

    March 19, 2014 at 8:15 pm

    @efgoldman: The derailment in Quebec last year was a disaster but I think you are correct that transporting oil is not safe. Until we can convince more to wind and solar, it’s what we have.

  28. 28.

    El Caganer

    March 19, 2014 at 8:16 pm

    Isn’t WVA run by Democrats?

  29. 29.

    danielx

    March 19, 2014 at 8:24 pm

    I am sure the free market will take care of all of this and we will be able to purchase individual water filtration systems once all our springs and city water are toxic.

    And if there’s any population that ought to know, it’s the long-suffering residents of West Virginia. I’d say Texas too, except down there if libs are against water pollution, good Texans are for it.

    @Litlebritdiftrnt:

    I absolutely despair because it would seem that there a large amount of people who think that so long as you make a profit, it doesn’t matter who suffers.

    As long as it’s not, you know, those same people.

  30. 30.

    Mike in NC

    March 19, 2014 at 8:26 pm

    These Job Creators won’t be happy until all rules and regulations about air and water pollution are made toothless. It’s the main reason the Koch brothers are spending millions to capture the Senate and abolish the EPA and other agencies. If they succeed, in a few years you want be able to step outside without wearing a respirator, as in most cities in China.

  31. 31.

    Roger Moore

    March 19, 2014 at 8:27 pm

    We just cleaned up the burning river in the Mistake by the Lake, Pittsburgh’s air is now breathable

    Which proves that businesses are now so environmentally responsible we can shut down the EPA without any problems./wingnut

  32. 32.

    MikeJ

    March 19, 2014 at 8:32 pm

    @jharp: Brad Wenstrup, a different republican.

  33. 33.

    ? Martin

    March 19, 2014 at 9:38 pm

    @JPL: Pipeline, no question. Though tanker spills are larger, they’re falling into a vastly larger, and less critical body of water. These spills are in fresh water bodies, near homes, near aquifers, etc. They’re harder and more expensive to clean up, they’re more disruptive to the population.

    Now, pipelines should be safer. They’re less exposed to accidents and vastly easier to monitor and maintain, but the problem is that they aren’t adequately monitored and maintained. They should also be easier to stop, and they are, but maybe not easy enough. Nearly a million gallons is a lot before someone can find a shutoff valve. Tankers have the upside of, while they’re huge, they’re of limited size. Pipelines are effectively limitless until someone turns off that valve.

  34. 34.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 19, 2014 at 10:43 pm

    @ranchandsyrup:

    We should err on the side of caution.

    Which means we should be conservative in the traditional sense of that word. Not the post Reagan sense. Which is the absolute opposite of cautious. “Let’s stop Putin in the Crimea! What could go wrong?”

  35. 35.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 19, 2014 at 10:44 pm

    @? Martin:

    but the problem is that they aren’t adequately monitored and maintained.

    Because doing those things cut into sacred profit.

    NOTHING is more important than profit. Not even life itself.

  36. 36.

    Villago Delenda Est

    March 19, 2014 at 10:48 pm

    @John Revolta: You can trace the regression back to the election of the shitty grade-Z movie star in 1980. One of his first acts was to remove the solar panels from the White House, and shitcan Jimmy “History’s Greatest Monster” Carter’s energy initiatives.

  37. 37.

    Linnaeus

    March 20, 2014 at 12:56 am

    Remember that Enbridge bitumen spill in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan about 3 years ago or so? Still not cleaned up. Maybe never will be.

  38. 38.

    rob

    March 20, 2014 at 2:41 pm

    I live 20 minutes north of Cincinnati and I haven’t heard of this spill yet.

  39. 39.

    J R in WV

    March 20, 2014 at 6:03 pm

    @El Caganer:

    NO! West Virginia is owned and operated by big coal (which is shrinking as the amount of coal available for mining gets smaller and closer to zero) and to a lesser degree Oil and Gas and Timbering.

    Just look at the recent poisoning of the water supply for 300,000 people! No one arrested for attempting to kill people at a genocidal rate! Now the hotel industry is crying because people don’t want to visit a town where you CAN’T DRINK THE WATER!

    For decades people have been talking about when the coal is gone we can turn t the state’s wonderful scenery to build a tourist-oriented economy. But before the coal is gone, the coal industry is going to ruin every square foot of ground in the state they can get their hands on, legally or illegally, so there won’t be any beautiful green rolling hills of West Virginia! And no post-mining economy, either.

    So, no. Democrats don’t run W Va, Crazed businessmen run the state. Always have, always will, until there’s no pretty ridge tops for them to own and live on.

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