Worst Kind of Crude Oil Runs in Pipeline Below Plainfield, Experts Say

According to my environmental friends at Rainforest Action Network Chicago, the Enbridge pipelines that run through northern Plainfield and Wheatland townships carry tar sands oil from Canada, which they say is the dirtiest form of transportation fuel on the planet.

Tar sands emit three times more greenhouse gasses than conventional oil. It sucks up five barrels of water and upheaves four tons of earth to produce a single barrel.

Illinois farmers don't like Enbridge. The pipeline company right now is the target of a lawsuit by 250 farmers in Central Illinois who are fighting to preserve their farmland from an Enbridge pipeline expansion through their fields (like the one through the corn field near me).

But BP is cool with it. The BP refinery in Whiting, Ind., is undertaking a nearly $4 billion expansion project, the largest in Indiana's history, to expand more tar sands oil.  The oil is highly contaminated with sulphur, salt, acids and heavy metals.  The runoff will go straight into Lake Michigan, the Rainbow Action Network says.

By the way, Enbridge started pumping oil through the pipe 6A  again about 10 a.m. today.