Crude oil is the fossil fuel which mankind has depended on for decades. Crude oil has been a godsend to the industrial revolution helping modernize the world and has been an assassin to our very existence.

The time has long since passed to take a giant step for mankind by focusing on the development of alternative fuels. What has stopped or slowed this process is the giant oil companies which have dominated our political system from day one. The reason they have been dominate s because the powerful and mega rich oil families have been either United States senators or have had their buddies win the needed seats by throwing millions into their campaigns so they could draft legislation in the oil companies favor. These money hungry people are the reason we are dependent on fossil fuels and why there have not been strides in developing alternative fuels. These people want to keep their power their profits at any and all costs.

This brings us into the problem of crude oil pipelines and the devastation that they have caused just in the last 5 years. In the last five years there have been1000 ruptures or spills in America.7 million gallons of oil has been spilled in the last 5 years.

On May 19, 2015 a pipeline owned by Plains All American ruptured near Santa Barbara, California, in the end spilling more than 100,000 gallons, or 2,400 barrels, of oil. Tens of thousands of gallons of the oil ran into a storm drain and flowed into the Pacific Ocean. This spill took the media's attention because it killed hundreds of several different species of aquatic life and birds and happened on a pristine coastline. This same area was the location of a spill in 1969 which sparked a huge environmental movement.

The Santa Barbra spill cost 60 million and growing for the clean- up. In 2013, lightning struck and perforated a pipeline in North Dakota. It leaked more than 20,000 barrels, or 865,200 gallons, of oil, making it more than eight times the size of the Santa Barbara spill. Corrosion was the culprit in the Santa Barbara spill and is a common cause in many pipeline accidents. Some huge spills resulted from valves being left open, while others were caused by bad seals, heavy rains and people puncturing pipelines while digging.

Every pipe line company has had several pipeline spills and will continue to have them in the future. Poor inspections, human error, and lack of inspections putting profit before adequate pipelines inspections and updated lines will continue to be a problem in the crude oil business. It always has been and always will be. As long as mankind depends on crude oil- these types of environmental disasters will happen over and over. All we can do is to try and make these accidents further and further apart by imposing stricter safeguards. Until mankind wises up and realizes that we can invent new and clean energy that will not harm the earth and man himself. We are in a world of hurt. Until then the accidents will most likely continue and become more numerous in the U.S. because greedy man in his wisdom is sucking every drop of oil out of the earth in the U.S. and exporting it around the globe because money means more to these people than life itself.