Exxon spared from having to pay any money for Arkansas leak
Exxon has confirmed that the pipeline was carrying “low-quality Wabasca Heavy crude oil from Alberta.” This oil comes from the region of Alberta where the controversial tar sands are located. Heavy crude is strip mined or boiled loose from dense underground formations that often contain a large amount of bitumen. This oil is very thick and needs to be diluted with lighter fluids in order to flow through pipelines. Reports have stated that at least 12,000 barrels of oil and water spilled into the town.
A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Other conventional crude producers pay 8 cents a barrel to ensure the fund has resources to help clean up some of the 54,000 barrels of pipeline oil that spilled 364 times last year.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/02/1810571/exxons-duck-killing-pipeline-doesnt-pay-taxes-to-oil-spill-cleanup-fund/
Exxon Is Threatening to Arrest Reporters But Otherwise Telling Nobody Nothing
A week after crude oil inundated an Arkansas neighborhood, on-site observers describe a Walking-Dead-like scene, reeking and empty but for men in Hazmat suits, where Exxon has imposed something like martial law - taking over every task from wildlife and environmental officials, enforcing a no-fly zone overseen only by an Exxon official, telling residents panicked about their sick kids and plummeting property values nothing at all, virtually banning media coverage of the damage and, today, threatening to arrest an InsideClimate News reporter for criminal trespass when she entered their Command Headquarters looking for information. Her evidently big mistake: Walking up to a table with a sign that said "Public Affairs."
Reporters Say Exxon Is Impeding Spill Coverage in Arkansas | Mother Jones
Exxon has confirmed that the pipeline was carrying “low-quality Wabasca Heavy crude oil from Alberta.” This oil comes from the region of Alberta where the controversial tar sands are located. Heavy crude is strip mined or boiled loose from dense underground formations that often contain a large amount of bitumen. This oil is very thick and needs to be diluted with lighter fluids in order to flow through pipelines. Reports have stated that at least 12,000 barrels of oil and water spilled into the town.
A 1980 law ensures that diluted bitumen is not classified as oil, and companies transporting it in pipelines do not have to pay into the federal Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. Other conventional crude producers pay 8 cents a barrel to ensure the fund has resources to help clean up some of the 54,000 barrels of pipeline oil that spilled 364 times last year.
http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2013/04/02/1810571/exxons-duck-killing-pipeline-doesnt-pay-taxes-to-oil-spill-cleanup-fund/
Exxon Is Threatening to Arrest Reporters But Otherwise Telling Nobody Nothing
A week after crude oil inundated an Arkansas neighborhood, on-site observers describe a Walking-Dead-like scene, reeking and empty but for men in Hazmat suits, where Exxon has imposed something like martial law - taking over every task from wildlife and environmental officials, enforcing a no-fly zone overseen only by an Exxon official, telling residents panicked about their sick kids and plummeting property values nothing at all, virtually banning media coverage of the damage and, today, threatening to arrest an InsideClimate News reporter for criminal trespass when she entered their Command Headquarters looking for information. Her evidently big mistake: Walking up to a table with a sign that said "Public Affairs."
Reporters Say Exxon Is Impeding Spill Coverage in Arkansas | Mother Jones
