Related: I Reserve the Right to Add to This Post
I thought I would just start a new one:
"Much of the oil is being shipped across the United States and Canada in trains of 100 cars or more that accident investigators describe as ‘‘moving pipelines.’’
"Waltham fuel distributor to require safer rail cars at its terminals" by Erin Ailworth | Globe Staff May 08, 2014
Global Partners LP, one of the largest distributors of petroleum in the Northeast, said it will require trains carrying crude oil into its terminals to use stronger, safer tank cars that meet tougher standards recommended by the rail industry.
The move by Waltham-based Global, announced last week, follows several fiery crashes involving trains transporting crude oil from North Dakota, including one that recently forced the evacuation of parts of downtown Lynchburg, Va. Earlier this week the US Department of Transportation issued a nonbinding safety advisory recommending that rail companies pull older cars out of service for crude shipments and use sturdier rail tankers less likely to rupture — and explode.
The amount of crude traveling the nation’s rails has skyrocketed in recent years as US oil production has boomed, particularly in North Dakota, where the drilling technique known as fracking has opened reserves trapped in shale rock formations. As of June 1, Global Partners said, only rail tankers meeting heightened safety standards proposed by the Association of American Railroads will be allowed to carry crude into its terminals in Albany, N.Y., and outside of Portland, Ore.
About one-third of the more than 40,000 tanker cars used to transport crude today meet the higher safety standards.
“This is going to [continue] to be a method of transportation for energy and it has to be done safely,” Global chief executive Eric Slifka said. “Not everybody has these cars. And if they don’t have them, we’re not going to deal with them, that’s all.”
The railroad association’s proposed standards call for thicker walls and shields at both ends of tanker cars to better protect against punctures and rollovers; those built since 2011 generally meet these standards. Federal regulators are reviewing the railroad association’s recommendations but have not adopted rules that would require the design changes.
Both regulators and industry officials, however, say that even these tougher design standards may not be adequate to safely transport highly flammable crude.
“When you begin to look at cars that are derailing at speeds of 30-, 40-miles-an-hour, it’s very difficult, it’s a big ask, to expect that a tank car get hit [and] not be breached,” Karl Alexy, staff director of the Federal Railroad Administration’s Office of Safety, said during a recent forum in Washington.
Railroads last year transported some 12 billion gallons of crude across the country last year — more than 40 times the 285 million gallons moved in 2008.
Global, which began 81 years ago as a one-truck heating oil distributor in Dorchester, has capitalized on the North American drilling boom, expanding its facilities to accept more crude shipments from places including the Bakken region of North Dakota. In 2013, the company moved nearly 500 trains of crude oil and ethanol — roughly 95,000 barrels per day — through its Albany, N.Y., facility alone, financial filings show.
Related: Shale’s Effect on Oil Supply Is Forecast to Be Brief
The boom will be over by 2020 as some wells are already drying up!
The firm has two dozen terminals in Massachusetts that hold heating oil, gasoline, diesel, and propane, but not crude. Global had hoped to ship ethanol by rail to a terminal in Revere but withdrew that proposal in the summer of 2013 after residents and officials in Cambridge, Somerville, and other communities protested the cargo was too dangerous to move through densely populated areas.
Since 2006, there have been 17 serious rail accidents involving the transportation of crude and ethanol. One of the worst occurred last summer in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, near the Maine border, killing 47 people.
There are still unanswered questions regarding that.
Following the derailment in Virginia last week, the Department of Transportation issued an emergency order requiring rail companies operating trains with more than 1 million gallons of Bakken crude to notify emergency response officials in states through which the trains travel.
Tom Simpson, president of the Railway Supply Institute, a trade group in Washington that represents railroad suppliers including tank car makers, said the industry has spent millions researching how to make tank cars safer with better steel and components.
Simpson acknowledged regulators’ concerns that these improvements might not be enough but said that the new, sturdier cars, “if operated safely, will carry crude and ethanol safely.”
Diane Bailey, a senior scientist with the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group based in New York, said more needs to be done to make rail transportation of fuels safer. Among the most necessary changes: phasing out older tank cars and getting the industry to reroute hazardous shipments of crude around cities.
In Canada, regulators have ordered rail companies to phase out or retrofit older, puncture-prone tank cars within three years.
“These mile-long trains are hurtling through people’s communities and posing enormous risks,” Bailey said. “Meanwhile, it feels like the [US] government has been sleepy in its response.”
She means something like this while the pipeline is stalled, even if there are still questions back here.
Sucking oil must put you to sleep.
--more--"
Related: Global Partners PR Firm
Otherwise known as the Globe business section.
And don't worry about those tracking wells:
"US fails to inspect high-risk oil wells, audit finds; Report pinpoints oversight gaps, outdated science" by Hope Yen | Associated Press May 12, 2014
WASHINGTON — The federal government has failed to inspect thousands of oil and gas wells that it considers potentially high risks for water contamination and other environmental damage, congressional investigators say in an upcoming report.
The report, obtained by the Associated Press before its release, highlights substantial gaps in oversight by the agency that manages oil and gas development on federal and Indian lands.
It's the same be it the Gulf, coal, or any other indu$try regulated by this government!
Investigators said weak control by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management resulted from policies based on outdated science and from incomplete monitoring data.
Is it really worth typing anything anymore?
The findings from the Government Accountability Office come amid an energy boom in the country and the increasing use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
That process involves pumping huge volumes of water, sand, and chemicals underground to split open rocks, allowing oil and gas to flow.
It has produced major economic benefits but also raised fears that the chemicals could spread to water supplies.
Oh, don't worry about that. You don't need water.
The audit also said the BLM did not coordinate effectively with state regulators in New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Utah.
The land-stealing BLM is negligent, 'eh?
The bureau has become a symbol of federal overreach to industry groups opposed to government regulations related to oil and gas drilling.
And to other Americans defending ranches.
On the other side, environmental groups say the Obama administration needs to do more to guard against damage.
In the coming months, the administration is expected to issue rules on fracking and methane gas emissions.
Any methane tax to be applied to industry?
Related: Leaky pipes, leaky cows
Methane is worse than CO2, but then there would be no basis for a carbon tax.
**********************
The report makes clear in many instances that the BLM’s failure to inspect high-priority oil and gas wells is due to limited money and staff. BLM officials said they were in the process of updating several policies.
Well, when all the tax loot goes to Wall Street, Israel, the war machine, well-connected corporate interests and concerns, and lavish political lifestyles there isn't much left.
Investigators reviewed 14 states in full or part: Arkansas, California, Colorado, Louisiana, New Mexico, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.
In Ohio, Pennsylvania, and elsewhere, fracking has become increasingly prevalent....
Related: ‘Promised Land’: more promised than delivered
I would expect that reaction from the propaganda pre$$.
The agency considers a well ‘‘high priority’’ based on a greater need to protect against possible water contamination and other environmental safety issues....
The BLM has developed agreements with some states, which also have jurisdiction over well inspections on federal lands.
According to the GAO, it had reached agreements with regulators in California, Colorado, Nevada, and Wyoming.
The report said BLM has not reviewed or updated many of its oil and gas rules to reflect technological advances, as required by a 2011 executive order....
They didn't carry out the dictators orders?
The bureau acknowledged it had not updated its guidance on oil and gas drainage since 1999 or its guidance on mineral trespass — interference of drilling or mining activity — since 2003.
Congressional investigators found the BLM did not monitor inspection activities at its state and field offices and thus could not provide ‘‘reasonable assurance’’ that those offices were completing the required inspections.
**************
‘‘This report reaffirms our concern that the government needs to pay attention to the environment and protect public health and drinking sources from the risks of oil and gas development,’’ said Amy Mall of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
As it is poisoned while we sit here.
But Kathleen Sgamma, vice president of government and public affairs at the Western Energy Alliance, a trade group representing energy companies, said the report’s findings show that states are better positioned to regulate oil and gas drilling.
In Connecticut, state lawmakers have voted to impose a minimum three-year moratorium on importing waste from fracking.
The legislation requires the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to adopt regulations declaring waste and byproducts to be treated as hazardous waste.
That is what they are pumping into the ground.
--more--"
You know who will fix everything?
"Energy savings bill fails amid election politics" Associated Press May 13, 2014
WASHINGTON — A widely supported, bipartisan bill aimed at increasing energy efficiency fell victim in the Senate on Monday to election-year politics and the Obama administration’s continued indecision on the Keystone XL oil pipeline.
**************
Senate majority leader Harry Reid used a parliamentary maneuver to block Senate votes on the pipeline and power plant rules as part of the energy savings bill.
Reid said Monday Republicans were ‘‘still seeking a ransom’’ on the energy bill by insisting on the Keystone amendment and other votes. He said he had agreed to a long-standing request from pipeline supporters for a separate vote on the project if its supporters would let the efficiency bill sail through un-amended.
Minority whip John Cornyn of Texas called Reid’s maneuver disappointing. ‘‘The Senate used to be a place of great debate and accomplishment. Now it is run like a dictatorship shutting out the voices of millions of Americans,’’ he said.
Election-year politics loomed on all sides.
Democrats said Republicans were unwilling to hand a victory on the energy efficiency bill to Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat who is co-author of the bill and who is facing a reelection challenge from Republican Scott Brown, a former Massachusetts senator who now lives in New Hampshire. Republican Rob Portman of Ohio also co-authored the energy legislation.
Partisan discord was so strong that three Republican senators who co-sponsored the energy legislation voted against it Monday to protest the exclusion of amendments.
****************
Democrats also said the GOP wants to deny political cover to Senator Mary Landrieu, who faces a tough re-election fight in Louisiana, and to other Democrats in energy-producing states who have pushed for the pipeline’s approval during their campaigns.
A Senate vote on the pipeline would help Landrieu and Democrats such as Mark Begich of Alaska, even if it fell short of the 60 votes needed to advance it. President Obama delayed the project indefinitely last month, citing uncertainty over the pipeline’s route though Nebraska.
Related: Slick Move By Obama
As if we were deciding the election over that.
Landrieu, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee, has made Keystone approval an important part of her reelection campaign. She denounced Republicans who opposed the energy bill, a move that also blocks a Senate vote on the pipeline. ‘‘They chose to have an issue, as opposed to having a pipeline, and that’s very disappointing,’’ Landrieu said, naming minority leader Mitch McConnell as the chief culprit.
On the other side, Republicans accused Democrats of dodging a vote on blocking the Obama administration’s proposed limits on carbon pollution from coal-fired power plants.
No matter the outcome, having to vote on what Republicans call Obama’s ‘‘war on coal’’ would be uncomfortable for Democrats struggling to hold their Senate majority. Many Democrats in energy-producing states oppose the regulations.
Republicans also wanted a vote on boosting exports of liquefied natural gas, another hot political issue. Lawmakers from both parties support increased gas exports, although 22 senators — mostly Democrats — wrote a letter to Obama last week warning that increased exports could lead to higher prices for consumers and possible shortages next winter.
Ah, f*** the hungry and cold American people when there is a corporate buck to be made.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that Obama is committed to increasing energy security and efficiency and ‘‘will not rest even if Congress won’t act.’’
More dictator directives on the way.
Obama announced a series of executive actions last week aimed at increasing energy efficiency and reducing US reliance on carbon fuels. They include the completion of energy efficiency standards for walk-in coolers and freezers typically used in grocery stores.
So how much cost is that going to add to the economy?
Obama also announced that more than 300 companies, including Walmart, have pledged to boost their use of solar technology.
Republicans in coal-producing states have emphasized the Obama administration’s energy policies in midterm election campaigns.
A new ad from an independent political group seeks to link Alison Lundergan Grimes, the likely Democratic Senate candidate in Kentucky, with Obama. The ad — which cost $552,000 — began running on Friday and will continue through Kentucky’s May 20 primaries. The Grimes campaign said its expected rival, McConnell, has not done enough to protect coal country jobs.
Related: Kentucky Cockfight
--more--"
Hey, at least, the experience gained in the Gulf of Mexico has helped BP secure more oil leases from the federal government because "since the 2010 disaster, BP’s production in the Gulf of Mexico has plummeted. Nevertheless, BP is clearly back in the game after being shut out since 2012."
Related: BP insider trading case settled
I'm tired of the game, $orry.
"Valve failure sends oil spewing into Los Angeles streets" by Christopher Weber | Associated Press May 16, 2014
LOS ANGELES — A geyser of oil sprayed onto buildings and puddled in knee-high pools of crude in Los Angeles streets after a valve on a high-pressure pipeline failed early Thursday.
That's what happens when you don't do infrastructure maintenance.
About 10,000 gallons of oil spewed 20 feet high over approximately a half-mile of the industrial area of Atwater Village at about 12:15 a.m., said Fire Captain Jaime Moore.
Four commercial businesses near the border of Glendale were affected, as well as a strip club that was evacuated after oil came through air vents. The parking lot was closed and patrons and employees were forced to leave behind their crude-coated cars.
Crews were able to remotely shut off the 20-inch line after about 45 minutes.
‘‘Inspectors went right to the failed valve. They knew right away where the problem originated,’’ said Moore. Determining what caused the failure will take some time, he said....
By dawn, an environmental cleaning company had vacuumed up most of the mess. Crews put down absorbent material to sop up the remaining crude and then used high-pressure hoses to wash the streets with a soap solution.
Firefighters and hazardous materials crews responded, with representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies....
That's one of the problems. 18 million different agencies respond and investigate.
Fire Department spokesman Erik Scott said there was no visible evidence that the oil entered storm drains, which empty into the Los Angeles River. But he said it is possible that some oil seeped under manhole covers.
Just drink up and don't worry about the taste.
The valve failed at a transfer pumping station along a pipeline that runs from Bakersfield to Texas, Moore said.
That's a long way.
The company that runs the line, Plains All American Pipeline, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
--more--"
Oh, I love LA!
NEXT DAY UPDATE:
Buried in the bottom-right corner of page B9:
"CEO hopes town where 47 died will OK oil trains" Associated Press May 17, 2014
PORTLAND, Maine — The company purchasing the assets of a railroad responsible for a fiery oil train derailment that took 47 lives in Quebec plans to resume oil shipments once track safety improvements are made, the firm’s top executive said Friday.
John Giles, president and chief executive officer of Central Maine and Quebec Railway, said he hopes to have an agreement with officials in Lac Megantic, Quebec, within 10 days that would allow the railroad to ship nonhazardous goods, restoring the vital link between the railroad’s operations to the east and west of the community. The company plans to spend $10 million on rail improvements in Canada over the next two years with a goal of resuming oil shipments in 18 months, he said.
‘‘In the interest of safety, and I think being sensitive toward a social contract with Lac Megantic, we have chosen not to handle crude oil and dangerous goods through the city until we’ve got the railroad infrastructure improved and made more reliable,’’ he told the Associated Press.
The oil industry is relying heavily on trains to transport crude, in part because of oil booms in North Dakota’s Bakken region and Alberta’s oil sands.
In July, a train transporting Bakken oil was left unattended by its lone crew member while parked near Lac Megantic. The train began rolling and sped downhill into the town, where more than 60 tank cars derailed and several exploded. The accident killed 47 people and destroyed much of the town. Three workers were charged this week in Canada with criminal negligence.
Stephen Harper, Canada’s prime minister, wants the railroad and Lac Megantic residents to work together on a final plan.
‘‘Any plan the company has should take into account the tragedy the people of Lac Megantic have gone through and should be done in collaboration with the administration of the city,’’ said Carl Vallee, a spokesman for the prime minister.
Transportation Minister Lisa Raitt said only that she was monitoring the situation.
Mayor Colette Roy-Laroche, who had no comment Friday, previously told the new operator that she wanted the railroad to be rerouted around downtown.
--more--"
