Oil

Lac-Megantic, Quebec in Canada was partially leveled by the explosion of a runaway oil train this morning. Lives were lost. A town was devastated. It is reported as an accident. An accident?

 

The frustrated oil executives who have been prevented from running a potentially devastating oil pipeline from central Canada to Texas refineries have been discussing the alternative route of piping oil across to Quebec in existing pipelines and eventually to U.S. ports on the Maine Coast.  Today's events in Lac-Megantic are a good education on the multi-layered dangers of our dependence on the petrochemical industry.

 

Leadership on alternative energy has flagged in the face of a booming fracking industry and shale oil industry.  The wealthy aristocracy at the top of societies across the developed world are living fat lifestyles on dividends gained from investment in the oil economy. President Obama and Congress are in the pocket of the corporations which depend on and produce petrochemicals.

 

Most citizens of Lac-Megantic are not rich. They were just in the way of the profit-making machine of oil-driven capitalism. They were the victims of negligence and lack of safety concerns of the oil industry. According to press reports this morning, they had not been made aware a large shipment of combustible crude was being tanked through their town yesterday. Nobody seemed to care about their vulnerability to the disaster that unfortunately befell them.

 

Corporate media use the fear of terrorism to justify government intrusion and to intimidate the populace here in the U.S.. It is the old trick of the powerful to cow the less powerful and to create the illusion they are watching out for the interests of everyone. The reality, visible to opened eyes, is quite different. The corporate culture, blind to human welfare and social equality, look for profits at the least cost of investment. This is much more dangerous to the public interest than the odd religious lunatic.