As I have with torture, fracking, and voter suppression, I’ve concentrated a lot on posts about oil disasters, notably the BP cataclysm. These issues are mind-bogglingly huge, affect us as a country  deeply, and are maddeningly frustrating to many of us because they never seem to be resolved properly.

In the same general category as the BP mess are the impending Keystone XL “Tar Sands” Pipeline mess and the current Michigan oil catastrophe. The broken pipeline in Michigan gushed more than 800,000 gallons of heavy crude and was one of the largest and most expensive inland oil spills in U.S. history. CBS:

Officials said 35 miles of waterways and wetlands were fouled and about 320 people reported symptoms from crude oil exposure… Company officials have said some of the oil came from tar sands in the western Canada province of Alberta.

How nice that we are being pressured to allow the Tar Sands pipeline to infiltrate even more areas of our lovely country.

With all that in mind, ta da! We have a brand new environmental tragedy to add to the list! Drill baby drill! USA! USA! Via The L.A. Times:

Enbridge, a beleaguered Canadian oil pipeline company, has spilled more than 50,000 gallons of light crude oil in rural Wisconsin —  shortly after the company said it had implemented safety reforms after a massive 2010 spill in Michigan. [...]

As you can see, Enbridge Inc. is a big Canadian oil supplier to the United States, and they say this latest screw-up has been contained. It came from a 24-inch pipeline that carries more than 300,000 barrels a day, and is Enbridge’s worst spill since the 2010 Michigan disaster.

“Enbridge is fast becoming to the Midwest what BP was to the Gulf of Mexico, posing troubling risks to the environment,” [U.S. Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.)] said in a statement. [...]

According to Enbridge company data collected by the Polaris Institute, a Canadian think tank, Enbridge pipelines have spilled 804 times since 1999 and leaked 6.8 million gallons of oil. In response to a U.S. National Transportation Safety Board investigation blasting the company for its actions during the Michigan spill, the company said it had made “numerous enhancements” to safety procedures. [...]

National Response Center data shows that the new Enbridge spill in Wisconsin is the company’s worst in that state.

If their “enhancements” are anything like the BP “enhancements”, fugetaboutit.