My Senator and the Struggle for Energy Independence (from Oil Corporations) in the US

Oil Corporations  in Control

 

    As a resident of the state of Louisiana I understand that oil is important to our economy. I am kind of confused about  Ms. Landrieu's efforts on behalf of this state as far as those oil companies that operate in our state are concerned. And as far as coastal erosion is concerned, I am still more perplexed. While striving in the senate to pass legislation to protect the gulf coast, she has at the same time fought to protect the oil corporations from their responsibility to clean up and compensate our citizens for their losses from the BP oil spill and to protect their profits. The full effects from that spill are still not known and probably won't be for quite a number of years.This state and every other state has a right to expect corporations that ruin and destroy our ecologies, economies and environment, to compensate us generously. After all, the oil corporations are making windfall profits year after year. I would prefer to believe that our political leaders have negotiated for just such eventualities, rather then jut accept their word that these companies would handle their responsibillity because they have magnanimous hearts. There are no such corporations. Maybe, in the past, those who run corporations used to have the good of the public and their employees in mind, but not anymore. This has all slipped into the past. The only thing corporations are interested in is their bottom line now.

       The question now is what kind of energy policy do we want our government to have, since oil spills have so become common and are destroying the environment in many places across the country? Not only are there earthquakes in places in places where there have never been before, drinking water reservoirs and underground aquifers have been polluted, and now giant sinkholes are appearing in many places around the country. Many refuse to acknowledge that drilling or "fracking" has anything to do with this, but these things have never happened before. Is it coincidence?! 

      And now the oil companies want to visit another possible catastrophe upon us; that of piping a highly toxic form of oil sands from Alberta, Canada right through the heartland of the US. Some of it has already spilled and caused great damage, environmental and otherwise, to the communities that were affected. The damage was so bad that the news media were barred from being any where near the scene. Even if it were for US consumption, it should still be regulated to the highest order. But it's not for the benefit of this country, it's for consumption on the world markets. Why should we be willing to allow our country to risk such disasters over and over, to furnish to other countries with oil and gas? Let Canada ship this dangerous product from their own coasts.

      I can understand the republicans cheerleading for the Keystone XL pipeline, since they are always pro-business over the interests of everything else, but I can't figure out is why Ms. Landrieu is so pro-KXL pipeline. The pipeline has nothing to do with Louisiana and seems to be as environmentally hazardous as was the Event Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico when it exploded. We were led to believe that there wasn't a "snowball's chance in hell" that any accident could happen, but we all know that it is only a matter of time before the unthinkable happens. with that being the case, what are MS Landrieu's motivation for voting to allow the pipeline to go through? Was it that she didn't learn from that incident or is there another reason? Could she be taking contributions from even oil companies that have nothing to do with this state. Is she willing to let happen to other areas around the country what happened to the Gulf of Mexico for the sake of oil profits? Or will she stand for the good of the country? If she continues to stand with out of control, out of state oil corporations, I will no longer support her as my US senator. As a matter of fact I will contribute to a more progressive campaign that runs against her. We don't need any more blue dog democrats in Louisiana!