Oil spill

[Tri Girl]

One of the news stations reported that the gas stations that sell BP are independently owned and operated. The owners just get their gas from BP- so it's a double-edged sword. If you boycott the stations, you hurt the individual and their livelihood. If they refuse to buy gas from the person they've contracted with (BP), they're cutting their own throat.

[shootingstar]

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Che...804/story.html
There is a fuel oil leak into the ocean waters here locally now..it's been going on slowly for over a month. But under the radar, not revealed until recently.

While petroleum is required to make some plastics, synthetic materials, etc. which are tough to eliminate completely from modern day living (otherwise we'll have to chop down more trees in lieu as a resource material or grow more cotton for textiles..), just on daily transportation alone, could reduce a noticeable amount per family, if some changes were made to reduce car usage (therefore petroleum use) per week.

It is interesting to hear directly from a person who spent their whole career in the oil industry with a major oil company. Which is what dearie did.

Fact: He worked his whole career for a Canadian national oil firm which is now at least 40% own by Exxon.

As someone with an engineering background, he is highly doubtful that any manmade structure could ever guarantee error-free, leak-free offshore/underwater oil drilling operations.

As someone who negotiated very large contracts with other firms to repair pipelines...he is aware that oil companies often do NOT retrofit their pipelines when the forecasted engineering date for pipeline longevity has been reached. Often things just go past the "maturation" date for awhile. The public has no clue....unless you do work in the oil industry or have technical knowledge of oil production and distribution operations.

He is totally against gas flaring that one sees in the oilfields..harmful.
Against oil sands development --even more intensive processing to extract the oil and leftover sludge that is an environmental concern.

He even wonders about chefs use the propane torches for carmelizing the brulees daily. There's petroleum particulate material coming off the butane torch flame.

He really, strongly is against wasteful oil dependency for transporation -ie. single occupant car drivers, driving daily for short distances, etc. He supports the use of petroleum for some of our man-made materials in daily living. But not overuse.

No wonder, he's probably become a very strong/vocal cycling advocate.

I think the last time he drove a car..was um..Jan. 2009, in Hawai'i when we were on vacation. He only drove for 1 day so that we could see parts of Maui in a hurry. He'll drive a rented car if it means more time efficiency..but it's been awhile. Because of his sleep disorder, he had to pull over the roadside every 2 hrs. or so. Driving makes him sleepy...which means it's dangerous for him to drive for hrs. and hrs. without stopping.

Our quality of life has not suffered. But then, we have chosen to live in the city. We are going to Europe for several wks. and don't plan to rent a car.