2000 Oil Production Accidents and Leaks Since 1995—Yikes!

A sobering—but not at all surprising—story on the Associated Press wire this morning: the more we drill for oil, the more accidents we have.

Consider these stats, all of them taken from that article:

• More than 2000 “significant accidents” on pipelines since 1995, causing $3 billion in property damage
• A single pipeline company, Plains All American Pipeline LP (operators of the line that spilled over Santa Barbara, California this week) has had 223 accidents $32 million in structural damage, 864,300 gallons spilled, and 25 federal enforcement actions just since 2006
• A 60 percent increase in the number of accidents annually since 2009—and, not coincidentally, also a 60 percent increase in US oil production

Causes? Corroding pipes, failures in welds—aging infrastructure, in other words—with a generous helping of natural disasters and careless backhoe operators.

These accidents leak toxics, cause a  risk of severe fires, and of course, drive up the price of energy.

Isn’t it time we stopped relying on fossil and nuclear for our energy needs? We already have the technology to switch to save, reliable, renewable sources such as solar, wind, geothermal, magnetic, tidal…and deep conservation, which just by itself could cut our energy use in half.