February will be bringing a change of focus as I will only be dealing with fun things I find in my Boston Globe.
"House bill aims to address state’s power shortfall" by Jon Chesto, Globe Staff January 29, 2015
A sweeping new bill on Beacon Hill aims to dramatically reshape the state’s energy landscape in an effort to address high electricity prices and concerns about the regional grid’s reliability.
Related: Rising Electric Rates Are to Extort Gas Pipeline
Well, that stinks.
The bill is unusual in its scope, showering many corners of the industry with assistance.
So which well-connected concerns are getting the tax loot?
Among its goals: expand the state’s pipeline capacity, line up contracts for offshore wind farms, and build power lines to Canada’s massive hydropower plants.
Proposed by Representative Patricia Haddad, who has been a top lieutenant of House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, the bill, filed earlier this month, will serve as a starting point for negotiations.
He's a happy man these days.
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The most controversial aspect of the bill could be a tax that would be imposed to pay for more construction of natural gas infrastructure — a proposal that resembles one supported by New England’s governors about a year ago.
Un-flipping-believable!!!
Environmental groups say public subsidies should not be used to underwrite pipeline expansions. New England’s electric grid, they say, is already too dependent on natural gas. “We should be seeking to make a transition that doesn’t lock us into [new] fossil fuel infrastructure for decades,” said Joel Wool, an energy advocate with Clean Water Action in Boston.
Tony Buxton, a lawyer at Preti Flaherty in Maine who represents about a dozen big industrial clients in the region, said he would prefer to see New England states working together. “It’s easier to have a regional solution,” Buxton said. “But it’s good to have the states empowered if [a regional solution] doesn’t work.”
A DeLeo spokesman declined to comment on the legislation late Wednesday.
Massachusetts has some of the highest electricity rates in the country, and the region’s grid overseer has warned of potential rolling blackouts as soon as 2016 if more power cannot be pumped into the system. “It’s the talk of the business community,” Haddad, a Democrat, said of the electricity woes. “It’s probably the number one topic of conversation.”
Haddad’s legislation represents a sequel of sorts to a bill aimed at bringing in more Canadian hydropower. That proposal died when time ran out in the last legislative session. Haddad worked closely with leaders in the energy industry and the environmental community in recent months before crafting the latest bill.
If the proposal becomes law, it would require the state’s electric utilities to enter into long-term contracts with offshore wind developers, with the goal of helping those developers obtain financing for the projects.
Even after the failure of Cape Wind to find financing?
Haddad said she hopes the bill sends a message that state officials are interested in fostering the offshore wind industry, despite Cape Wind’s failure this month. A dozen offshore wind developers, including an affiliate of Cape Wind, are eligible to bid on sections of deep water south of Martha’s Vineyard at an auction of federal leases this week....
“We [have] an opportunity to build a new industry.”
See: Wind power auction draws limited interest
Just a bunch of hot air!
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Related: Senators urge more caution on pipeline project
That's the Full Spectra for you.
Things ARE safe, right?
"NTSB: Systemic flaws in safety oversight of gas pipelines" by Joan Lowy, Associated Press January 28, 2015
WASHINGTON — Three powerful accidents in recent years highlight weaknesses in the oversight of how natural gas providers maintain their largest pipelines, investigators said Tuesday as they issued more than two dozen safety recommendations.
That's great news to read before the bill is presented.
A major effort a decade ago by the US government to halt a rise in violent pipeline failures in ‘‘high-consequence’’ areas — where people are more likely to be hurt or buildings destroyed — has resulted in a slight leveling off of such cases but no decline, the National Transportation Safety Board said. And while the frequency of such accidents remains low, they are still more likely to occur in more densely populated areas, despite increased safety efforts in those areas, the report said.
And the more pipelines you build....
More improvements are needed ‘‘to prevent catastrophic gas transmission line accidents from ever happening again,’’ said Chris Hart, acting NTSB chairman.
Where did all those profits go?
A steady increase in pipeline explosions and fires in the 10 years prior to 2003 prompted the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to adopt safety standards in 2004 for inspecting and maintaining the physical integrity of pipelines.
Since then, state-regulated pipelines — those that don’t cross state borders — have had a 27 percent higher incident rate than federally regulated pipelines that traverse more than one state, the report said.
From 2010 to 2013, incidents were overrepresented in high-consequence-area pipelines compared to less-developed areas, where the risk to people and property is lower, the board said.
Three accidents since 2010 illustrate many of the systemic problems, the board said. On Sept. 9, 2010, a massive section of pipeline was blown out of the ground, igniting a giant pillar of fire in San Bruno, a San Francisco suburb. Nine people were killed and 70 homes destroyed. The blast was so powerful that residents initially thought there had been an earthquake or a jet crash. Because there were no automatic or remotely controlled valves, more than an hour passed before the gas could be shut off.
See: San Bruno Suffers Indigestion
On Dec. 11, 2012, near Sissonville, W.Va., a stretch of pipeline ruptured, igniting a fire that destroyed three homes, damaged several others, and melted the asphalt on a highway. The pipeline hadn’t been inspected in 24 years.
A similar pipeline ruptured May 4, 2009, near Palm City, Fla. The blast tossed 106 feet of buried pipeline into the air. Incredibly, there was no fire even though 36 million cubic feet of gas escaped and two other gas lines were buried parallel to the one that ruptured. Damage to the pipe’s protective coating had gone undiscovered, and a shut-off valve failed to close.
In each accident, gas companies failed to conduct inspections that might have revealed weaknesses, the NTSB said.
The concern is that aging pipelines will rupture in populated areas. Nearly 300,000 miles of gas pipelines crisscross the nation, more than half of them installed before 1970. Pre-1970 pipelines have a significantly higher failure rate.
The board has 28 recommendations, mostly for federal regulators. They urged states to adopt inspections that are more costly but more apt to find problems. They urged federal inspectors to work more closely with state inspectors and establish a mentoring program; state inspectors often lack expertise in some areas.
How you feeling about that pipeline bill now?
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Related: Senate passes Keystone oil pipeline bill
The Senate voted 62-36 in favor of building the pipeline.
And despite the veto threat:
"The Obama administration floated a plan Tuesday that for the first time would open up a broad swath of the Atlantic Coast to drilling, even as it moved to restrict drilling indefinitely in environmentally-sensitive areas off Alaska. The proposal envisions auctioning areas located more than 50 miles off Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia to oil companies no earlier than 2021. For decades, oil companies have been barred from drilling in the Atlantic Ocean. Some New England lawmakers objected to the plan. “If drilling is allowed off the East Coast, it puts our beaches, our fishermen, and our environment in the crosshairs for an oil spill that could devastate our shores,’’ Senator Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, said in a statement. “Offshore oil spills don’t respect state boundaries. A spill off the coast of North Carolina could affect Massachusetts. We saw what happened after the BP spill. My state’s fishing and tourism industry can’t afford that kind of tragedy.’’
"A private company finally will be able to legally drill for oil in part of Wyoming that’s best known for a 1920s presidential scandal. The Energy Department said Friday that it has finalized the sale of the Teapot Dome oilfield to New York-based Stranded Oil Resources Corp. for $45.2 million. Most of the easily accessible oil in the 9,500-acre oilfield 35 miles north of Casper already has been tapped. Stranded Oil specializes in recharging depleted oil fields with techniques such as injecting carbon dioxide underground. Teapot Dome remains best known for a scandal that embroiled President Warren G. Harding, whose interior secretary took bribes to allow drilling in the oilfield. Teapot Dome was supposed to have been reserved as emergency fuel for the US Navy."
Now they are called campaign contributions.
Of course, the biggest concern is alleged global warming:
No, 2014 wasn’t the ‘warmest year in history’
Indeed, the probability that 2014 set a record is not 99 percent or 95 percent, but less than 50 percent. NOAA’s number-crunchers put the probability at 48 percent; NASA’s analysis came in at 38 percent. The agencies rationalize their attention-getting headline on the grounds that the probabilities were even lower for other candidates for the label of “hottest year in history.”
At least nuclear is not a concern.
