The Ogallala Aquifer isn’t worth fighting over. Agricultural poisons long ago tainted the ground and drinking water. People don’t even taste it anymore; they’ve adapted. Rain, nor snow, nor sleet, can cleanse it. And it’s non-renewing otherwise; it has no other source.
The XL pipeline isn’t worth fighting over either. It’s a fait accompli. Even now they’re “fast-track” building from the south. And while a “stay” is in place at present on our northern end, their equipment will be coming over the hill just after the polls close on November 7th. Go ahead, bet your life savings on it.
Pipelines have always leaked to one degree or another. They always will. The benzene slurry it takes to move tar sands proves carcinogenic with minimal exposure. But I’m not letting this bother me. Halliburton, I’m confident, has seeds of corn, wheat and oats stockpiled, and engineered to grow in benzene murk.
Fracking is another matter. Those folks living in proximity of fracked wells who now can’t drink from their own wells made out like bandits on mineral rights money, didn’t they? Here’s an additional comforting piece: recent earthquakes in the east were not abetted by, and certainly weren’t caused by, fracking, no matter what the science implies.
I propose to you that “energy independence” is a myth promulgated by those who will not rest until they’ve contaminated every watershed, and us all. Soon that $1.6 million Exxon paid for spilling petroleum into the Yellowstone River won’t buy any of us so much as a sip of clean water.
Until just recently, vanity plates have been fun to puzzle out while I wait for the light to change, but I’ve not thought I needed a set. Now I think I might succumb. You don’t suppose GIVNUP is already taken?
Bain Robinson
Corvallis