Also, what would you do with all the fuel you just refined in North Dakota? You'd just have to build a pipeline to carry all the products to the rest of the nation instead...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L...

North Dakota has a total of 80MBBL/day refining capacity. Louisiana has 3,310MBBL/day capacity. Texas also has a huge amount. Oh you want to build a new refinery? Would that be easier or harder than approval for a new pipeline? A new refinery hasn't been built in the US since 1976.

Never inspecting things is not allowed actually... http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/co...

Spill detection is present on every pipeline, it's just a matter of how sensitive it is. It is in a pipeline's best interest to keep product in the pipe as a leak is lost product even if you didn't have to worry about disasters and cleanup.

Airplanes have the same problem as pipelines. A lot of them were made a long time ago, and people have been trying to string them along past their design lifespans. New pipelines are far safer than old pipelines. Trying to block construction or replacement of pipelines is counter to making pipeline disasters less likely.

Your linked article is by a guest contributor who doesn't actually debunk any of the data.

So the argument is that most pipeline spills are catastrophic, but they don't count the non-catastrophic ones? Many of the pipeline related spills are also small spills that are cleaned up immediately at pipeline stations.

Except the article that he is debunking uses units of ton-miles, and uses it consistently between transportation methods. The fact that pipelines use barrels and rail cars gallons has nothing to do with the actual amount of releases.

I'm not denying that we need both rail and pipelines to move crude. But you can't deny that pipelines are safer and that a new pipeline will reduce the demand for rail transportation.

Right, so gas prices are artificially low because you don't have to carry buckets of crude to your house and refine it yourself? Carbon dioxide is what is going to kill us all, not fire and oil spills? That's a very well reasoned argument you have there...

Really? http://www.enbridge.com/Bakken... Maybe you need a reality reset.

Not the most efficient method, and historically one of the worst environmentally and the most dangerous to large populations when there is a failure. Don't get me wrong, I am a huge proponent of hydro power, but it's not without severe disadvantages.

http://www.manhattan-institute...

Here's a hint, the vast majority of pipelines are protected for hundreds of miles. They are buried underground! Trains travel above the ground where they are subject to weather, traffic, etc. Also, pipeline releases are easier to recover and clean up than rail accidents. The data doesn't lie.

http://www.manhattan-institute...

Plenty of studies done... According to this one rail is about 4x more likely to have an incident per weight-mile. Which is still ahead of the 40x more likely when transported by road!

I just hope you call before you dig... The biggest single cause of pipeline releases is 3rd party excavation damage:
http://primis.phmsa.dot.gov/co...

You're right, pipelines built in the 1930s do fail from time to time. Mainly because it's so hard to build new ones that pipeline companies try to run old pipelines at as high pressure as they can get away with. You should see the difference in how pipelines used to be constructed vs how they are built now. A new pipeline is an amazing feat of engineering. Old pipelines were just whatever pipe they could find laid in the ground.

To make an obligatory Slashdot car analogy: I am suggesting we make new planes so people will be able to travel safer than driving a car. You come back with "yeah, we've obviously never had major plane crashes".

You know, a PIPELINE would be a lot safer way of transporting crude oil around the country... Stopping the construction of pipelines results in more of these rail car accidents you know.

Let's celebrate with 8-16 characters that must include at least one capital, one number, and one symbol but not repeat any character more than twice. Ahh screw it, why don't we celebrate World Write Down Your Password On A Post-It Note Day?

Freedom of speech. Data is just speech between a server and a client. Why should ISPs limit or censor speech between two parties based on their content?

He already tried turning Star Trek into Star Wars, now they are giving him that franchise to ruin too... Star Wars, now with 5000% more lens flare!