In case you missed the disturbing news, an oil pipeline in Marshall, MI (see it on a map) sprung a leak on Monday morning and has since dumped more than 800,000 gallons of oil into a creek that feeds into the Kalamazoo River. A local congressman is calling it the "largest oil spill in the history of the Midwest." If uncontained, the oil would eventually reach Lake Michigan, but state officials say they don't expect that to happen (which, frankly, isn't all that encouraging).
Illinois-based environmentalists are rightly calling foul. "How many oil spills,
decimated ecosystems, and broken communities will we endure before we understand
the true cost of carbon?" asked Illinois' own Rep. Mike Quigley in a statement today. Joel Brammeier of the Alliance for the Great Lakes wrote yesterday: "[A]s today’s event in west Michigan shows, this is no time to relax our vigilance on fossil fuel development." And on their Twitter account this morning, the Illinois Sierra Club pointed out that the Canadian company that owns the pipeline in question reported $232 million in earnings in the second quarter of this year.
Hopefully, much of those profits will be used to pay for the ongoing cleanup.
