ExxonMobil

An independent study co-published by the Faulkner County Citizens Advisory Group and Global Community Monitor reveals that, in the aftermath of ExxonMobil's Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill of over 500,000 gallons of diluted bitumen (dilbit) into Mayflower, AR, air quality in the area surrounding the spill has been affected by high levels of cancer-causing chemicals.

Roughly four weeks after the spill took place, many basic details are still unknown to the public, according to recent reporting by InsideClimate News. Questions include what exactly caused the spill, how big was the spill exactly, and how long did it take for emergency responders to react to the spill, to name a few.

But one thing is certain according to the new study: For the residents of Mayflower, quality of life has been changed forever.

The chemicals found in the samples include benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, n-hexane, and xylenes. Breathing in both ethylbenzene and benzene can cause cancer and reproductive effects, while breathing in n-hexane can damage the nervous system and usher in numbness in the extremities, muscular weakness, blurred vision, headaches, and fatigue.

All of these chemicals are hazardous air pollutants (HAPs), "regulated under the 1990 Federal Clean Air Act amendments as the most toxic of all known airborne chemicals," as explained in the press release summarzing the study. 

The Colbert Report last night featured DeSmogBlog's investigative findings on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) delegating authority over its "no-fly zone" above the Mayflower tar sands spill site to ExxonMobil "aviation advisor," Tom Suhrhoff.

Stephen parodied Exxon's secrecy at the site of ExxonMobil's Pegasus tar sands pipeline spill, honing in on the fact that the "private empire" threatened a reporter at Inside Climate News with arrest when she sought to ask a spokesperson questions at the spill relief command center headed by Exxon.  

On March 29, Exxon's Pegasus pipeline spilled up to an estimated 7,000 barrels of tar sands diluted bitumen ("dilbit") into Mayflower's neighborhoods and surrounding wetlands, causing the evacuation of 22 homes. Exxon's poor handling of the spill clean-up was also featured in the April 8 edition of "The Rachel Maddow Show."

Check out "The Colbert Report" segment:

A quick break for some Friday afternoon comic relief. As only Colbert can, he highlights the absurdity and somehow culls the funny out of a freaking oil spill. And he hits the most important points, too: the Pegasus-Keystone XL comparisons and the fact that it's not an "oil spill," but a "bitumen spill." Oh, and "oil soaked Neils." 

Here's Stephen Colbert on the spill:

Florida may soon become the fourth state with a law on the books enforcing hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") chemical disclosure. The Florida House of Representatives' Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee voted unanimously (11-0) on March 7 to require chemical disclosure from the fracking industry. For many, that is cause for celebration and applause. 

Fracking for oil and gas embedded in shale rock basins across the country and world involves the injection of a 99.5-percent cocktail of water and fine-grained sillica sand into a well that drops under the groundwater table 6,000-10,000 feet and then another 6,000-10,000 feet horizontally. The other .5 percent consists of a mixture of chemicals injected into the well, proprietary information and a "trade secret" under the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which current President Barack Obama voted "yes" on as a Senator.

That loophole is referred to by many as the "Halliburton Loophole" because Dick Cheney had left his position as CEO of Halliburton - one of the largest oil and gas services corporations in the world - to become Vice President and convene the Energy Task Force. That Task Force consisted of the Secretaries of State, Treasury, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce, Transportation and Energy. One of its key actions was opening the floodgates for unfettered fracking nationwide.

Between 2001 and the bill's passage in 2005, the Task Force held over 300 meetings with oil and gas industry lobbyists and upper-level executives. The result was a slew of give-aways to the industry in this omnibus piece of legislation. On top of the "Halliburton Loophole," the bill also contains an exemption for fracking from Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforcement of the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act.   

The federal-level response to closing the "Halliburton Loophole" is the Fracturing Responsibility and Awareness of Chemicals (FRAC) Act, a bill that never garnered more than a handful of co-sponsors. 

The state-level response, the story goes, is versions of the bill that recently passed onan 11-0 bipartisan basis in a Florida state house subcommittee.