This is bad news on several fronts, and has environmental relevance now and into next year. First the spills: nothing good about large volumes of spilling and burning fossil fuel - during hurricane season.

Second, these attacks add impetus to the energy independence/security mindset heading into the coming US elections. Mexico being a significant supplier of US energy, our bet is that the security driver will begin to outrun climate, in part because of these incidents.

Third, for industry in general, these attacks will raise interest in keeping operations steady by relying more on renewable energy. They underscore a familiar and disturbing pattern, as well: the focus on cheap labor and cheap energy to the exclusion of social stability leads to a broadening of many forms of risk.

Bombers attacked at least six oil and natural gas pipelines Monday, rattling financial markets and causing hundreds of millions of dollars in lost production.

The attacks sparked concern that the energy sector of the second-largest supplier of oil to the United States may be increasingly vulnerable to attacks from a fledgling Marxist rebel movement.

Via:: Kansas City Star Image credit:: Kansas City Star

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• Barack Obama Faces Environmental Clean Up After Two Centuries of Bingeing: Bill McKibben
• BLM Issues New Rules for Oil Shale Development: Last Minute Bush Administration Environmental Trashing?
• 'Zero Emissions' Arctic Station Researchers Move In, Part I

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