Smack Dab In The Middle With You

Another day, another oil spill, shutting down a substantial stretch of the Mississippi River around New Orleans.

The spill occurred on Saturday when a barge carrying oil crashed into a tugboat between Baton Rouge and New Orleans. Authorities closed the stretch of river on Sunday and still can’t say exactly how much oil was spilled, though a light sheen of oil is being reported. No injuries were reported from the crash.

In St. Charles Parish, public drinking water intakes along the Mississippi were closed as a precaution, but a news release Sunday assured the public that the water supply “remains safe” in the parish. As of Sunday night, the closure was stalling 16 vessels waiting to go downriver and 10 waiting to go upriver.

And another day, another oil spill, this time in North Carolina:

CANDLER — Environmental officials and contractors worked Saturday to contain a spill of some 5,000 gallons of fuel oil, some of which made its way into Hominy Creek and the French Broad River.

If the costs of cleanup were figured into the price of this stuff rather than being passed on to the taxpayers, the idea that fossil fuels are somehow “cheap” energy sources would disappear overnight.

It’s because it’s “cheap” that we spill it everywhere. If heroin cost a penny a pound, junkies would be spilling it all over the place when they weren’t shooting up.

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