On February 24, Marilaine Savard, from Lac Megantic Canada gave a presentation in Pittsburg, CA, on the train tanker car explosion that rocked that little town last July, killing 47 people (it would have been far more if it had been later in the morning) and destroying most of downtown. The explosion was of Bakken crude oil, the most explosive oil being pumped nowadays. The Obama administration has ordered “emergency safety rules” for transporting Bakken crude. Those rules are merely that the oil has to be pre-tested for explosiveness. That means absolutely nothing, and even if they did impose more rules, they will not be enforced, if simply by underfunding so there aren’t enough inspectors (a very common trick). From the well head to the refinery and all along the way, fracking is deadly. And that doesn’t even include how it adds to global climate disaster – global warming.
Here is a video of Marlaine’s presentation:
Categories: environment, videos/documentaries
Surely oil extraction can’t involve fracking.
Hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” is used to extract both natural gas and oil from shale rock. In this case, the oil that exploded at Lec Megantic was from the Bakken shale deposit in North Dakota. That oil is known as the most volatile – explosive – of the oils that is being shipped because of its high level of gas in the oil.