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Originally Posted by MattyC
iggy man, I think you got to take the loss here. You're talking in circles and just throwing out random suggestions and expecting them to be taken seriously. It is in the the oil company's best interest that pipelines don't leak and move the product as efficiently as possible. People much smarter than you or me (or most people on the planet) design and redesign these things constantly. Leaks are going to happen no different than plane crashes are going to happen. There are no perfect machines.
IMO where things fall apart is maintenance and monitoring. Not enough people to properly maintain, weak regulatory care/oversight on a day-to-day basis, things like that. But it's a loooooong way to walk. You can't have someone sitting there 24 hrs watching weak points. And when a spill happens, it's not like you just put some gum in the hole and call it day. It takes time to shut stuff down and seal of a leak.
We all want better things for the environment, but we have to deal with realism to. And realistically, a gutter system would cause much more environmental issues just to build.
I think we have to accept that this is the way to move oil. We should focus on trying to reduce the things we use oil for (starting with fuel) instead of building very costly, ultimately useless structures.
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I’m comfortable with my assessment that more can be done. What exactly am I to take a loss on? People’s argument that everything possible is already being done? I’m not advocating that a gutter system is a be all end all approach, I threw out a random example and the responses I received reinforced my views. When the argument is made that certain precautions wouldn’t make pipelines economically viable I can’t help but question the faith they put in these companies. The amount of money that is already invested and more importantly the profits made from these pipelines is astronomical. To suggest that investing more in prevention is going to make it unviable for the same corporations that are paying 100’s of millions of dollars in clean up efforts while continuing to apply to build new pipelines to me is a little questionable.
If you’d like to believe that these same companies that have spent decades being forced to accept increased regulations due to the fact that they were not operating responsibly without them are now all of the sudden are going above and beyond what’s required instead of doing what is most cost effective to achieve the minimum requirements then that’s your opinion and you or anyone else are welcome to it. But please respect the opinions of those who look at the historic patterns and are not convinced. This isn’t about a gutter system.