MUENCHHAUSEN, JANUARY 25, 2017

MUENCHHAUSEN

AN ELECTRONIC NEWSLETTER ABOUT ENVIRONMENT, RENEWABLE RESOURCE TECHNOLOGY,

AND RELATED TOPICS

By BOOTSTRAP PRESS, INC.

BETHESDA, MD
JJGREENBARON(at)VERIZON.NET

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January 2 , 2017
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WELCOME!

The Green Baron (TGB) welcomes one and all who take the time to read Muenchhausen. He aims to “tell it like it is” as much as possible, and avoid advocacy and ideological positions. There are enough of those to go around in other publications.

IS KEYSTONE XL BACK?

Pipelines are the way to go — economically and environmentally (1): So it would appear, now that the federal administration has changed. Actually, there is not much construction to go to bring Keystone XL on line to carry crude oil from Alberta, Canada, to the US Gulf Coast states. As TGB understands it--please correct him if he is wrong--there are merely several miles to go through Nebraska. True, there will be permits needed from the state and perhaps some more approval from the State Department.

Simple, no? Uh, not so fast! TGB is fearlessly forecasting that there will be batteries of lawsuits launched to forestall further construction. He will not, however, predict the outcome of such lawsuits. It might, however be instructive to bear in mind that whatever hazards pipelines may pose--and yes, there are chances of spills and leaks--it may be considerably more dangerous to transport crude by train or truck. An extreme example of such a hazard was the fiery spill at Lac-Megantic, QC, Canada, July 6, 2013, in which an oil train was wrecked, nearby buildings were destroyed, and perhaps 47 people were killed and many more injured (2). TGB thinks he would rather take his chances with a pipeline for oil and even gas.

Lac-Megantic disaster.
Credit: Surete de Quebec.

SCARY OBITUARY
TGB happened to come across a scary obituary on Saturday, January 14, 2017. The decedent died of an infection that no antibiotic was able to cure, but perhaps most significantly, this cause was listed in a short death notice (3).



REFERENCES
1. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/pipelines-are-the-way-to-go-economically-and-environmentally/article/2592215#.V0X4_c0uMWo.blogger
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lac-M%C3%A9gantic_rail_disaster#/media/File:Lac_megantic_burning.jpg
3. Obituary column, The Washington Post, Jan. 14, 2017.