Oil oopsies

BP's Gulf of Mexico oil fail began with a (preventable?) explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig.

Endbridge's Kalamazoo River oil fail stemmed from a lengthwise rip in a (deteriorating?) length of pipeline.

Now the boys in Mercer County, PA are just casually pumping the crude directly into the waterway.

One result of all these "spills" and "accidents" is the Foes of Frackin and Fossil Fuels turning up the rhetoric in the Great Lakes State.

Jim Olson, one of the Midwest's leading environmental attorneys, warns Michigan is at risk of becoming the Water Plunderland without a more cautious approach to natural gas extraction.

And the state chapter of Clean Water Action launched the Countdown to Catastrophe campaign to ban drilling in the Great Lakes.

"The Countdown" seems a bit sensational. But so does the continuing pattern of inexplicable fuel follies (BP again) slowing restoration of American waterways.

Righteous waterfront development for Buffalo

Buffalo's ArtVoice recently published an interesting Q&A with the head of that city's waterfront redevelopment effort. But it's the local record exec who advances the truly aspirational thinking in a small sidebar to the story:

"Let’s take a million dollars, two million dollars, and do an international search for the Frederick Law Olmsted of the 21st century and design the preeminent urban park."