Oops, I Spilled It Again

Earlier this week, a crude oil leak was discovered in the Frade oil field off the coast of Brazil, and Brazilian officials declare they plan to "bring criminal charges" to 17 executives from Chevron, the US oil company, and the drilling contractor Transocean. This is hardly the Chevron's first offense in Brazil - in November a large oil spill occurred in the same Frade oil field, in which 3,000 barrels of oil poured into the Atlantic Ocean, around 240 miles from Rio de Janeiro. The prosecutor's lawyer said that they would be charging the defendants for "environmental crimes," among other things.

I find this article interesting, especially after the infamous Gulf oil spill caused such an uproar here in 2010. Do you guys think the charges against Chevron and Transocean are fair? Who do you think should be responsible for oil spills in general? And where do you think the line should be drawn between making money and protecting the environment?

Keystone Pipeline

The Keystone Pipeline project that was pushed back last month is now being brought back in action. This pipeline would transport crude oil from Canada's oil sand regions to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast.

"TransCanada (TRP), the company that wants to build the pipeline, says Keystone would create 20,000 'direct' jobs. That includes 13,000 construction jobs and 7,000 jobs making stuff like pump houses and the pipe itself.

It also projects nearly 120,000 'indirect' jobs -- think restaurant workers and hotel employees to support the construction."

While this project does have the potential to create more jobs, there is a downside as well. Firstly, TransCanada reports that only around 100 permanent jobs will be created by this project. Furthermore, there are environmental issues that could arise with this new pipeline.

"jobs could also be lost due to crop failures or other events associated with higher pollution levels the oil sands would bring. And it said more oil would mean a decline in green jobs."

Furthermore, "one study from Cornell University said the pipeline could actually lead to a decline in jobs in the long run. One reason is that the pipeline would lead to higher fuel prices in the Midwest, the study said, and that would slow consumer spending and cost jobs."

So do you think this project will actually help? Or will it simply cost more jobs than it will create? Is this project worth it?

Oil's Cheap, but Gas Isn't

It seems they're inversely propotionally. Oil prices have hit a new low, but it looks like gas prices are going for a new high, trying to beat last year's $4 per gallon, oh my god. "The recession in America has dramatically cut demand for crude oil, and inventories are piling up. So prices for West Texas crude have fallen well below what oil costs from places like the North Sea, Saudi Arabia and South America." It's not like that's going to help us much though without building new billion dollar pipelines over the next few years while oil just continues to flip flop and frustrate people. Not to mention all of the space it would take up, the wildlife it would destroy, and the uselessness of it once we actually stop using oil, either because we've become independent of it or because we've used it all up. But maybe this'll help us get to our future goal of being a nation not dependent on oil. Hopefully things'll work out for the best, because I know that personally, I'm getting sick of having to go pump up my tank and seeing that it costs me almost $10 more than last time.