A crude oil pipeline through central Illinois south to Patoka in Marion County, sees inevitable, despite concerns about the effect of a spill on creeks in McLean County. And the pipeline has a supporter in the US Senate, Democrat Dick Durbin. During a recent visit to Bloomington-Normal, the senior senator says the pipeline is the lesser of two evils. He says transporting the oil on trains has proven dangerous, and points out the state is already criss-crossed with existing oil and natural gas lines:
Durbin says the derailment of a train carrying crude near Galesburg shows how dangerous it is to move the oil on tanker cars. He says Enbridge, the company building the pipeline, uses small pipe crawling robots to inspect the pipe's integrity.
