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May 3rd, 2010:

Wal-Mart ain’t so environmentally friendly after all!

May 3rd, 2010
by trashee.
2 comments

It has been touting itself as an environmental leader – not polluter. But today, Willy-Mart was fined a whack of cash for illegal dumping of hazardous wastes in California.

The settlement ends a five-year investigation involving more than 20 prosecutors and 32 environmental agencies that found violations at 236 of Wal-Mart’s stores and distribution centers across California, including Sam’s Club warehouse stores, said San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis.

Wal-Mart was accused of improperly disposing of pesticide, fertilizer, paint, aerosols and other chemicals. In one case, Ms. Dumanis said a boy was found playing in a mound of fertilizer outside a Wal-Mart garden section. The fertilizer had chemicals harmful to people’s respiratory systems.

Man, I just LOVE it when big corps get their wrists slapped!

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Could a spill happen in Canada’s north? You betcha!

May 3rd, 2010
by trashee.
2 comments

The Hamilton Spectator reports that there isn’t a plan in place for dealing with a natural disaster similar to what we are seeing unfold in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pending final approvals, Scottish oil company Cairn Energy plans to drill four wells this summer in offshore leases west of Greenland’s Disko Island — right next to the international boundary with Canada.

The company’s previous offshore experience has been in the Indian Ocean, but spokesman David Nisbet said Cairn would take all possible precautions in its first venture into the Arctic.

Ah! Trust us! We have gained a vast amount of experience in northern drilling from our work in the Indian Ocean!

Yeah.

Experts agree there’s no good way to clean oil from waters that are more than 30 per cent covered by ice. Once oil gets under that ice, there’s little chance of removing or even tracking it.

Head Dipper, Jack Layton, is rightfully called for increased scrutiny of oil company operations in the north.

Mr. Layton cited efforts by major oil companies to relax safety regulations for offshore drilling in the Arctic Beaufort Sea. The Gulf of Mexico oil spill comes from a well operated by British Petroleum, which is also among firms pushing for an exemption up North.

Liberal environment and energy critic David McGuinty, who has been raising concerns about the risks of Arctic drilling, says he’d also like to see Parliament tackle the matter. “It’s too bad we didn’t look at this earlier,” Mr. McGuinty said. “This is a real wake up call,” he said of the Gulf of Mexico disaster.

Damn right, boys. Put the pressure on the Harperites NOW.  Canadians are paying attention to this quite carefully and this ups the chance that Stevo will follow through and take another look at our own regs and those of other countries where drilling activities may impact water and ice in Canadian territory.

(864)

…an under-FRICKIN’-ground VOLCANO of oil!

May 3rd, 2010
by trashee.
1 comment

I wonder if the right wingnuts in the good ol’ US of A are still saying “Drill, baby, drill!”

Hmmm… maybe not so much at the moment, eh?

I’ve been in Pensacola and I am very, very concerned about this filth in the Gulf of Mexico,” Florida Gov. Charlie Crist said at a fundraiser for his U.S. Senate campaign Sunday night. “It’s not a spill, it’s a flow. Envision sort of an underground volcano of oil and it keeps spewing over 200,000 gallons every single day, if not more.”

an under-FRICKIN’-ground volcano of oil

Wow. Pretty descriptive.

Shurely, no one is still saying that unfettered or lightly regulated offshore drilling is the best thing to do, naw….

But wait!

As an oil slick in the Gulf of Mexico grows larger by the hour, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin continues to stick to “drill, baby, drill.”

In a 30-minute speech to a Republican crowd in Kansas City Saturday, the onetime Republican vice presidential nominee dubbed the gulf spill “very tragic” but added: “I want our country to be able to trust the oil industry.”

Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!! The stupids are in my head!!!!! They are eating my brain!!! Augggghhhhh!!!!!

Good read here about how Americans (and the rest of us by extension) must NOT blindly trust Big Oil…

…But this disaster needs to drill a fundamental truth into the heads of Americans.

Don’t trust Big Oil, and don’t let it set America’s agenda. Our country cannot sacrifice its economy, climate, fisheries, air and water quality at the altar of the carbon economy.

“We are looking at a wildlife disaster that is unthinkable: This could be the Exxon Valdez on steroids,” historian Douglas Brinkley, author of The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast, said in an interview.

But wait, just wait… are those the sounds of  “it ain’t as bad as the liberal media is making it out to be” sounds that I hear beginning to surface… stay tuned.

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