A Dog’s Life

As far as I know, no criminal charges have been filed against Plains All American Pipeline for killing hundreds of marine animals. A recent U.S. News article says, “Prosecutors are considering possible charges.”

If you point an AK-47 at a dog and shoot it, that’s criminal. If you dump toxic deadly chemicals on that dog instead of shooting it, that would be criminal. But if you kill an animal with toxic crude, you get away with because “it was an accident,” or it was because of “poor record keeping”?

How does Plains, or any other oil company, get to walk away from any culpability? And so they have no incentive to actually be accountable, keep impeccable records, put measures in place for better monitoring and back up, no fail safe. They get to go back to business as usual, pay a big fine, and kill more marine life the next time; no misdemeanor or felony charges unless they head down to the beach with AK-47s and shoot every bird, every seal, every dolphin in sight.