The news is filled with apocalyptic warnings regarding modern dependence on fossil fuels. Burgeoning gas and oil costs, air pollution and a changing climate are all part of the scenario. Although alternate energy sources are catching up, petroleum is by far still the fuel of choice. It supports the entire world economy, and will do so for the foreseeable future. Crude oil transportation makes this reliance possible.
Pipelines carry much of this toxic material. Freshly extracted petroleum is not a benign substance. Rather than being a single uniform liquid, it is a mixture of chemicals that vary according to geography. Spectacular accidents off southern Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico are recent historical illustrations of the environmental destruction a transport mishap can leave behind.
While it is easy to fulminate against the oil companies, most people are neither willing nor able to eliminate this product from their lives. Not only does it fuel vehicles, but petroleum is the major ingredient used to make most plastics and personal care products. It is burned to generate electricity, heat homes, to provide fuel for commerce, and has become essential to modern medicine and agriculture.
There are few easily accessible oil fields remaining. Countries like Canada are currently processing huge amounts from shale in some remote northern regions, while production in the United States has soared with the introduction of hydraulic fracking, an extraction method that captures the remaining deposits from previously tapped fields. Getting the crude from well to refinery over land has become a major political issue.
Pipelines are still the least destructive method in use. The mind-boggling amount of this product produced each day in northern Canada would fill over 15,000 tanker trucks and nearly 5000 rail cars. The most practical means of moving it is through pressurized tubes, but no method is totally safe. A recent American pipeline break created an ecological mess, as well as a public relations debacle.
Ocean-going oil tankers are a familiar site at some ports, and millions of barrels each day pass through global political hot-spots such as the Straits of Hormuz. Industry figures illustrate that of all the oil floating at sea, less than 8% has been caused by tanker mishaps. That is still a huge and damaging figure, but helps see the problem from a different perspective.
Most concerning is the growing practice of moving crude by rail and over the highways, made necessary by a dearth of pipeline infrastructure. There have been notable fiery accidents both in Canada and the United States involving rail cars, and shippers must now notify local authorities when a train is scheduled to pass. A ship explosion is tragic, but a derailed oil tanker becomes an urban bomb.
Short of halting production, there is no easy solution to the problem. As regulators urge shippers to improve safety, residents adopt a not-in-my-backyard attitude, and both sides are enmeshed in political controversies that cloud the issue. The modern world is not going to stop using oil until forced to do so, and producers have the responsibility of shipping their product safely.
Pipelines carry much of this toxic material. Freshly extracted petroleum is not a benign substance. Rather than being a single uniform liquid, it is a mixture of chemicals that vary according to geography. Spectacular accidents off southern Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico are recent historical illustrations of the environmental destruction a transport mishap can leave behind.
While it is easy to fulminate against the oil companies, most people are neither willing nor able to eliminate this product from their lives. Not only does it fuel vehicles, but petroleum is the major ingredient used to make most plastics and personal care products. It is burned to generate electricity, heat homes, to provide fuel for commerce, and has become essential to modern medicine and agriculture.
There are few easily accessible oil fields remaining. Countries like Canada are currently processing huge amounts from shale in some remote northern regions, while production in the United States has soared with the introduction of hydraulic fracking, an extraction method that captures the remaining deposits from previously tapped fields. Getting the crude from well to refinery over land has become a major political issue.
Pipelines are still the least destructive method in use. The mind-boggling amount of this product produced each day in northern Canada would fill over 15,000 tanker trucks and nearly 5000 rail cars. The most practical means of moving it is through pressurized tubes, but no method is totally safe. A recent American pipeline break created an ecological mess, as well as a public relations debacle.
Ocean-going oil tankers are a familiar site at some ports, and millions of barrels each day pass through global political hot-spots such as the Straits of Hormuz. Industry figures illustrate that of all the oil floating at sea, less than 8% has been caused by tanker mishaps. That is still a huge and damaging figure, but helps see the problem from a different perspective.
Most concerning is the growing practice of moving crude by rail and over the highways, made necessary by a dearth of pipeline infrastructure. There have been notable fiery accidents both in Canada and the United States involving rail cars, and shippers must now notify local authorities when a train is scheduled to pass. A ship explosion is tragic, but a derailed oil tanker becomes an urban bomb.
Short of halting production, there is no easy solution to the problem. As regulators urge shippers to improve safety, residents adopt a not-in-my-backyard attitude, and both sides are enmeshed in political controversies that cloud the issue. The modern world is not going to stop using oil until forced to do so, and producers have the responsibility of shipping their product safely.
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