Geismar Olefins Plant Explosion & Fire, Louisiana, 2013

From an Article by Terry L. Jones, The Advocate, September 26, 2016

PLAQUEMINE — Four men injured in the 2013 explosion at the Williams Olefins Geismar plant were awarded a total of $13.6 million in damages after an Iberville Parish jury late Monday night ruled the company, several plant officials and its parent company were negligent and knew with substantial certainty that the deadly fire could occur.

The jury rendered its verdict after five hours of deliberation in the three-week trial in the first of several lawsuits related to the incident that killed two people and injured 114 workers.

“For a month they were trying to shift blame onto their shell company (Williams Olefins) and I’m glad the jury saw right through it,” Kurt Arnold, attorney for the plaintiffs, said after Monday night’s verdict.

The jury found that Williams’ Oklahoma-based parent company was 95 percent responsible for the explosion and Williams Olefins was 3 percent to blame. The jury apportioned 1 percent of the blame on plant official Parker Tucker and 1 percent for plant supervisor Larry Bayer, who were also named defendants in the lawsuit. The jury absolved defendant Erick Comeaux, a plant official.

Plaintiff Shawn Thomas will receive the highest payout in damages, awarded $9.4 million for past and future medical bills, lost wages and mental anguish, and pain and suffering. Kris Devall was awarded $3.6 million and Eduardo Elizondo and Michael Dantone were awarded $360,000 and $205,000, respectively.

The company, in a written statement issued after the verdict, says it plans to appeal: “Nothing about the tragic accident at the Williams Olefins facility in Geismar on June 13, 2013 was intentional. We believe there is sufficient Louisiana case law that supports our legal position, and we will appeal the jury verdict rendered in the 18th Judicial District Court.”

In their closing arguments, attorneys for the four men asserted Williams Olefins administrative leaders and plant managers had some idea an explosion could occur, ignoring for seven years warnings that could have prevented the tragedy at the facility, which straddles the Ascension-Iberville line.

“This accident doesn’t happen if the board of directors and CEOs heeded the warnings they were told,” Arnold told the jurors.

But the jury was asked by defense attorneys to view the decisions and actions of the company and its plant officials as a mistake they never intended to happen. “This case is not about responsibility. Williams Olefins already accepted responsibility,” defense attorney Glenn Farnet said. “It was a horrible mistake. Human beings make mistakes. Mistakes are not intent.”

Farnet asserted that in order for the plaintiffs to argue intent Williams’ officials would have had to have known three sequential factors would occur on the day of the explosion. “The scenario that happened that morning had never happened in 13 years because it was an unusual scenario,” he said.

The plaintiffs contended that Williams, key management figures and others had known for years that one of two reboilers used in the refinery process was isolated from pressure relief — which meant there was a risk of over-pressurization and explosion.

Both sides admitted in the court the explosion could have been prevented if car seals, costing less than $5, were tied onto the rebroiler valves. But defense attorneys claimed corporate officials were under the assumption the safety measures had been followed based on what they were told by plant managers.

Much of the debate during the three-week trial centered on the whether Williams’ Oklahoma-based corporate headquarters should bear much of the responsibility for the explosion since its administrative leaders must sign off on many of the day-to-day decisions made at the Geismar facility by the plant managers who work for its limited liability company, Williams Olefins.

“Williams Olefins stood up here and took the blame, but that wasn’t enough,” said Jim Reed, the attorney representing two of the parent companies named in the lawsuit. “Sometimes the truth is very simple. Lawyers complicate things.”

Arnold, the plaintiffs attorney, asserted in court Monday that Williams should bear 90 percent of the responsibility for the plant explosion and Williams Olefins should take 4 percent of the blame. The remaining liability should be apportioned among the remaining defendants, he said.

Arnold asked the jury to award Thomas and Devall $12.1 million each to cover past and future medical bills, lost wages and mental and physical suffering since the explosion.

Arnold asked that Elizondo and Dantone get at least $1.6 million and $835,364, respectively, for past and future medical expenses and lost wages. He left it to the jury to determine what additional money, if any, the two men should receive for past and future mental anguish and pain and suffering.

But Randy Cangelosi, one of several attorneys arguing on behalf of Williams, said some of the plaintiffs exaggerated their injuries while others had pre-existing conditions or weren’t injured severely enough to prevent them from getting high-paying jobs in the future.

“This case is about what’s fair and reasonable. It’s not about punishing any company,” he told the jury.

Cangelosi said Dantone should receive between $65,000 to $80,000 in damages, Elizondo somewhere in the range of $65,000 to $80,000, Thomas between $1.4 million to $1.7 million and Devall’s payout should fall somewhere between $400,000 to $925,000.

Tony Clayton, another attorney for plaintiffs, told the jurors that Williams should not be allowed to injure its employees and then turn around and determine how much money the workers should receive for their injuries.

“Your verdict will be a historical marker of how (these plants) conduct themselves in the future,” Clayton said in his closing arguments. “If they’re man enough to come here and make profits off of us, then they need to be man enough to pay for their substantial mistakes.”

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Accident Description and Safety Investigation:

Accident: Williams Olefins Plant Explosion and Fire
Location: Geismar, LA
Accident Occured: 06/13/2013 | Final Report Released: 10/19/2016
Accident Type: Chemical Manufacturing – Fire and Explosion
Investigation Status: The Chemical Safety Board (CSB) investigation was released at a news conference in Baton Rouge, LA, on 10.19.2016
The fire and explosion occurred on Thursday June 13, 2013, which fatally injured two workers and injured 114 at the William Olefins, Inc., plant located in Geismar, Louisiana.

FINAL REPORT OF C.S.B., CASE NUMBER No. 2013-03-I-LA
https://www.csb.gov/file.aspx?DocumentId=6004

Debating the validity of climate change is a waste of time.
… … …  Debating what to do is not !

Editorial, Houston Chronicle, May 19, 2014

The recent report on climate change from the U.N.-chartered Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is a sober reminder that what we as individuals happen to “believe” about global warming – unless we happen to be climate scientists – has absolutely no bearing on whether the phenomenon is a vast hoax perpetrated by 99 percent of the scientific community or a looming crisis that, as the report underscores, will affect everybody on this planet.

Skepticism on most issues is, indeed, healthy, but in any number of areas, whether it’s relying on M.D. Anderson for cancer treatment or a Texas A&M-trained civil engineering fund to erect bridges and skyscrapers, we have to trust the experts. So it is with measuring and assessing the evidence of climate disruption. As conservative columnist Michael Gerson pointed out in the Washington Post recently, “Our intuitions are useless here.”

The report from the scientists, economists and other experts on the IPCC panel is about as sobering as it can get. The panel warned that the planet is indeed warming, that humans are primarily responsible and that we are not anywhere near prepared for the dire consequences.

What’s coming if we can’t or won’t change our ways are low-lying island nations disappearing, coastal cities going the way of Venice (at best), abnormal weather patterns and growing seasons and tropical pathogens migrating into formerly temperate zones.

In Texas and elsewhere, change already is upon us. We’re seeing increased rates of water loss, depleting water resources, increased wildfires and the spread of invasive species. Our grandchildren and their children will see a rise in sea level from 1 to 4 feet by the end of the century.

“Climate change is no longer a future issue,” Katherine Hayanoe, director of Texas Tech’s Climate Change Science Center, told the Chronicle recently. “For the United States as a whole, climate change will affect our lives through its impacts on our health, our water resources, our food, our natural environment and our economy.”
Debating the validity of climate change – or whether we believe in climate change – is a waste of time; debating what to do in response is anything but a waste.

According to the IPCC report, emissions of heat-trapping greenhouse gases grew faster between 2000 and 2010 than over the previous three decades. That disturbing statistic is despite real progress being made in some parts of the world. In Germany, for example, Chancellor Angela Merkel has laid out a plan to fill more than 40 percent of her nation’s energy needs from renewable sources. The United States has reduced its carbon emissions by nearly 10 percent since 2005, in part because of stricter automobile fuel economy standards but also because of the lingering recession. Progress, though, pales in contrast to the increase in emissions by China and other rapidly industrializing countries.

We know what needs to be done, but if we can’t summon the political will and the sense of worldwide urgency to implement some kind of carbon tax or to develop new technologies that limit future carbon emissions, then we need to begin preparing for the worst. That means reassessing where we live and where we build, how we feed ourselves, how much water we use, among numerous other major adjustments. Gondolas in Kemah, anyone?

NOTE: The question at the end of the above editorial asks whether Texans will welcome sea level rise, given that Clear Lake will rise into the streets of Kemah, a lakeside community near Houston and the Gulf of Mexico.

CLEAR LAKE in Greater Houston & Gulf of Mexico

Millennium gas pipeline project

Marcellus natural gas takeaway pipeline projects advance

From an Article by Brett Wessler, Dairy Herd News, February 21, 2014

Last week, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved three projects to increase natural gas takeaway capacity from the Marcellus Shale formation. On February 11, FERC approved the TEAM 2014 project expansions on Spectra’s Texas Eastern Transmission Co. (Tetco) pipeline. TEAM stands for Texas Eastern Appalachia to Market. The next day, FERC issued an environmental impact statement (EIS) on a new pipeline and related compressor station project—Williams’s Constitution Pipeline and the Iroquois Pipeline’s Wright Interconnect Project (WIP). The EIS recommended conditional approval for the two projects, pending the adoption of measures to mitigate their environmental impact. WIP has a projected in-service date of March 2015, while the Constitution Pipeline projects the beginning of service in late 2015 or 2016.

The TEAM 2014 project would provide Tetco with capacity to move an additional 0.59 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) out of the Marcellus from interconnects in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Expansions would allow for bidirectional flows on portions of Tetco that currently only flow gas from the Gulf and Rockies Express Pipeline into the Northeast. Two shippers—Chevron and EQT Energy—have contracted for the full amount of the capacity expansions. Rockies Express deliveries into the Northeast have declined over the past two years, and in November, FERC upheld a petition from Rockies Express Pipeline LLC allowing for the establishment of firm agreements to reverse direction and move gas east-to-west on the pipeline.

Chevron booked 0.29 Bcf/d of capacity to move gas on the expanded Tetco pipeline from Uniontown, Pennsylvania, to Lambertville, New Jersey, where Tetco connects with Spectra’s Algonquin Gas Transmission (AGT) pipeline. EQT Energy booked the remaining 0.29 Bcf/d of firm capacity to move 0.24 Bcf/d of Marcellus gas south to Tetco’s AA market zone in the Gulf of Mexico region, and 0.05 Bcf/d west to Lebanon, Ohio, where Tetco connects with the Rockies Express system. Outflows from the Northeast to other parts of the country as a result of these expansions would further decrease net flows of natural gas into the northeastern United States. These decreased flows have largely resulted from increasing Marcellus production, which enabled the Northeast to satisfy a greater portion of its own demand, and increasingly, send gas to other regions. TEAM 2014 would also help alleviate capacity constraints in transporting natural gas to northeastern markets, which contribute to high natural gas and power prices during periods of peak demand.

FERC also issued an EIS that recommended the construction, with modifications to the original plan, of the Constitution Pipeline. This pipeline would deliver up to 0.64 Bcf/d of Marcellus gas from Susquehanna County, in northeastern Pennsylvania, to Wright, New York, where the Wright Compressor Station is currently located. Iroquois would build a new compressor station at an adjacent facility under WIP, and modify the existing compressor station. Cabot Oil & Gas has a binding agreement for 0.49 Bcf/d of firm capacity on the Constitution Pipeline, while Southwestern Energy has an agreement for the remaining 0.15 Bcf/d.

The Iroquois Pipeline currently transports gas south to the Wright Compressor Station from its interconnect with TransCanada’s Canadian Mainline in Waddington, New York. At Wright, Iroquois interconnects with Kinder Morgan’s Tennessee Gas Pipeline (TGP) northern 200 line, which can flow gas to New England customers via its interconnect with AGT south of Boston, but has delivered increasing amounts of natural gas to the Canadian Mainline via its Niagara Falls interconnect with TransCanada.

The Constitution Pipeline’s ability to move Marcellus production to northeastern consumers would significantly benefit from construction of TGP’s planned Northeast Expansion Project. This project would take gas from Wright to Dracut, Massachusetts, where it would connect with TGP’s existing pipeline as well as a line jointly operated by Spectra’s Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline and the Portland Natural Gas Transmission System. Open season for firm capacity agreements on the Northeast Expansion Project began on February 13, and will continue until March 28. Project capacity could range from 0.60 Bcf/d to 2.20 Bcf/d, according to TGP documents.

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Natural gas pipeline firm eyes $2 billion expansion in Pa.

Pittsburgh Post Gazette (Associated Press), February 21, 2014

Tulsa, Okla.-based Williams Partners says it’s planning to seek approval for a $2.1 billion natural gas pipeline project in Pennsylvania that it hopes to complete in 2017. Williams said the proposed Atlantic Sunrise project is designed to transfer more natural gas from Marcellus Shale-producing areas in northern Pennsylvania to heavily populated East Coast markets.

The project will include adding capacity and compression to the Transco Leidy line near Wilkes-Barre and adding a new section, the Central Penn Line, to connect it to the Transco mainline about 100 miles away in southern York County, Williams officials said. It has yet to get permits or seek approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Williams Partners is a subsidiary of The Williams Companies Inc., which operates 15,000 miles of interstate natural gas pipelines.

IHS Global Insight: Study of Jobs and Job Growth

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Data Seconded by EmploymentCrossing Job Research Data

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Job search data at Employment Crossing affirms the jobs trend emphasized by the IHS Global Insight report. (The report was funded by the oil and gas industry).

PWWEB News, December 26, 2012

A newly released study by IHS Global Insight claims that unconventional oil and gas production have become an engine of job creation and economic growth.

According to the report, America’s New Energy Future – The Unconventional Oil and Gas Revolution and the US Economy, shale energy has created at least 576,000 jobs in Texas, 102,600 jobs in Pennsylvania, 96,500 jobs in California, 78,900 jobs in Louisiana, and 77,600 jobs in Colorado. The report also claims that by 2020, Louisiana and Colorado would be displaced from their position in the unconventional oil and gas sector by Oklahoma and Ohio. The report was published in December and is co-sponsored by the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for 21st Century Energy.

The IHS report claims that already in 2012, employment in the entire unconventional oil and gas production sectors have added more than 1.7 million jobs to the economy. This number is expected to grow up to 2.5 million jobs by 2015, and 3 million jobs by 2020.

According to the IHS direct employment in the sector consists of about 20% of the jobs actually resulting from unconventional oil and natural gas activity while the rest is contributed by indirect and induced employment.

Job search data at Employment Crossing affirms the jobs trend emphasized by the IHS report.

Right now, as of 26th December, 2012, EmploymentCrossing lists about 50,766 job openings in Texas, out of which 7,863 jobs were in the oil and gas sector. However, a great number of the jobs in the sector, which varied from legal jobs, engineering jobs, and blue-collar jobs to accounting jobs were not directly into production of oil and gas, but indirectly supported by the industry or induced by it.

Pennsylvania shows about 75,158 total job openings on EmploymentCrossing, out of which 904 current jobs were related with oil and gas production though only 99 current openings had to do directly with the production of gas and oil. Similarly, California shows about 210,575 current job openings on EmploymentCrossing, out of which 1,569 oil and gas related jobs were there, though there were only 142 current openings in work directly in oil and gas production.

Speaking on the seeming anomaly about numbers, Harrison Barnes, the CEO of EmploymentCrossing said, “Live job openings in the oil and gas sector on job boards always remains few in number, because they are filled usually within days, and cease to be listed on EmploymentCrossing. However, the ratio of job distribution in the gas and oil sector as highlighted by the IHS report is very valid, because, as job openings listed on EmploymentCrossing show, about 20% of the jobs are directly into oil and gas production lines and 80% are indirect jobs associated with the industry. For example jobs of analytics, consultants or the jobs of attorneys with oil and gas experience would not be categorized directly under oil and gas jobs as they are not working at production lines.”

The original version of the above article is on the  PRWeb Internet site.