Alabama Pipeline Explosion from Fire Truck

Pipeline Blast in Alabama Injures Seven (7) Workers

This Article from the Associated Press, NBC NEWS, October 31, 2016

HELENA, Ala. (AP) — At least seven workers were injured Monday when an explosion occurred along the Colonial Pipeline in rural Alabama, not far from where it burst last month, authorities said.

The explosion sent flames soaring over the forest about a mile west of where the pipeline burst in September, Gov. Robert Bentley said in a statement. That rupture led to gasoline shortages across the South.

People within 3 miles of the blast site were being evacuated, the governor said. ”We’ll just hope and pray for the best,” the governor added. Video from area media shows a huge plume of flame and smoke rising in a wooded area in Shelby County southwest of Birmingham.

The seven injured workers were taken to Birmingham hospitals by helicopter and ambulance, Bentley told WBRC-TV in a live interview Monday evening.

“It appears to have been an accident, and they’re allowing fuel to burn,” Bentley said. “It’s about one mile west of where the repair took place on the Colonial Pipeline just recently.”

Georgia-based Colonial Pipeline said in a brief statement Monday evening that it has shut down its main pipeline. ”Colonial’s top priorities are the health and safety of the work crew on site and protection of the public,” the company said.

Several fire departments were sending crews to assist. Helena police say they’re assisting Shelby County authorities with the blaze. The explosion happened in a remote area outside the town of Helena, away from residential areas, Helena Mayor Mark told WBRC-TV.

PHOTO: A helicopter flies through a plume of smoke from a Colonial Pipeline explosion, Oct. 31, in Helena, Ala. Colonial Pipeline said in a statement that it has shut down its main pipeline in Alabama after the explosion in a rural part of the state outside Birmingham.

In September, the Colonial Pipeline leaked thousands of gallons of gas southwest of Birmingham near Helena and led to dry fuel pumps in several Southern states — for days, in some cases. There was no immediate indication Thursday whether or not Monday’s explosion will lead to similar shortages.

Colonial Pipeline, based in Alpharetta, Georgia, transports more than 100 million gallons of products daily to markets between Houston and New York City, serving more than 50 million people, it says on its website. They include petroleum products such as gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel. Authorities have not said which type of fuel was involved in the explosion Monday.

NOTE: “Some 220 ‘Significant’ Pipeline Spills Already This Year Exposes Troubling Safety Record” — By Dan Zukowski, EcoWatch.com, October 25, 2016

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Fracking & Frackers are Beyond Reason

Baker-Hughes and Susan G. Komen Using Stupid Tricks!

From a Post by Stefanie Spear, EcoWatch.com, December 4, 2014

Even Susan G. Komen’s own website shares the chemicals from fracking that are linked to breast cancer, but it didn’t stop them from partnering with oil and gas giant Baker Hughes, which donated $100,000 to Komen in October for the “Doing Our Bit for the Cure” campaign where 1,000 fracking drill bits were painted pink.

The viral post on EcoWatch, written by breast cancer survivor and fracking activist Sandra Steingraber, exposed the hypocrisy of this campaign. Now, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart takes this outrageous partnership to new heights.

Watch this hilarious segment where The Daily Show‘s Samantha Bee meets Karuna Jaggar, executive director of Breast Cancer Action, to fully uncover the stupidity of pink fracking.

See also:

Pinkwashing: Fracking Company Teams Up With Susan G. Komen to ‘End Breast Cancer Forever’

Tell Susan G. Komen Don’t Frack With Our Health

This article is endorsed by Duane Nichols, www.FrackCheckWV.net

Shall we pray for Keystone XL or a safe USA?

Senate defeats Keystone XL pipeline

From an Article by Susan Davis, USA Today, November 18

Washington, DC — The U.S. Senate defeated a bill to authorize construction of the Keystone XL oil pipeline, delivering a blow to Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La., by members of her own party.

“I came here 18 years ago fighting to get here, fighting to stay here,” Landrieu told reporters after the vote, “And I’m going to fight for the people of my state until the day that I leave. I hope that will not be soon.”

The bill failed to overcome a 60-vote threshold for passage by a narrow 59-41 decision. All 45 Republican senators voted for it, but Landrieu could not clinch the necessary last Democratic vote.

Thirteen Democrats voted with Landrieu, including outgoing Sens. Mark Begich of Alaska, Kay Hagan of North Carolina, Mark Pryor of Arkansas, and John Walsh of Montana. Additional Democratic votes came from Michael Bennet of Colorado, Tom Carper of Delaware, Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Donnelly of Indiana, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana, and Mark Warner of Virginia.

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New Analysis Reveals Dangerous Toll of U.S. Pipelines

From an Article by Bill Snape, Center for Biological Diversity, November 17, 2014

Washington, DC – With the U.S. Senate poised to vote on the Keystone XL pipeline on Tuesday, a new analysis of federal records reveals the dangerous toll of pipelines in the United States. In just the past year and four months, there have been 372 oil and gas pipeline leaks, spills and other incidents, leading to 20 deaths, 117 injuries and more than $256 million in damages.

The new data adds to a June 1, 2013 independent analysis of federal records revealing that since 1986, oil and gas pipeline incidents have resulted in 532 deaths, more than 2,400 injuries and more than $7.5 billion in damages.

A new time-lapse video includes every “significant pipeline” incident in the continental United States — along with their human and financial costs — from 1986 to Oct. 1, 2014. On average one significant pipeline incident occurs in the country every 30 hours, according to the data.

“There’s no way to get around the fact that oil and gas pipelines are dangerous and have exacted a devastating toll on people and wildlife. It’s appalling to see Congress seriously considering giving the green light to Keystone XL,” said Bill Snape, senior counsel with the Center for Biological Diversity. “The Obama administration’s own analysis says Keystone XL will spill oil, so it’s really troubling to see politicians wanting to add to this dangerous legacy of failed pipelines.”

The analysis comes as the State Department considers the Keystone XL pipeline — which would transport up to 35 million gallons of tar sands oil a day from Canada to Texas — that federal officials have already estimated could spill up to 100 times during its lifetime.

The analysis released today examines pipeline incidents since 1986, including spills, leaks, ruptures and explosions. It’s based on records from the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which maintains a database of all U.S. pipeline incidents that are classified as “significant,” those resulting in death or injury, damages more than $50,000, more than 5 barrels of highly volatile substances or 50 barrels of other liquid released, or where the liquid exploded or burned. In total there have been more than 8,700 significant incidents with U.S. pipelines, involving death, injury, and economic and environmental damage, since 1986 — more than 300 per year.

“This analysis ought to be a wakeup call to anyone who thinks it’s smart to double-down on these dangerous pipelines,” said Snape. “Voting for Keystone XL is voting for more spills, more environmental devastation and more climate chaos. It’s as simple as that.”

One difference between Keystone XL and the vast majority of other pipelines that have spilled is that it will be carrying tar sands oil, which has proven very difficult, if not impossible, to clean up. A 2010 spill of tar sands oil in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, for example, has yet to be cleaned up despite four years of effort. Another tar sands spill in 2013 fouled an entire neighborhood in Arkansas. Federal regulators have acknowledged that Keystone XL, too, will spill.

TransCanada’s existing Keystone I tar sands pipeline has reportedly leaked at least 14 times since it went into operation in June 2010, including one spill of 24,000 gallons. The State Department’s environmental reviews have pointed out that spills from Keystone XL are likely to occur, estimating that there could be as many as about 100 spills over the course of the pipeline’s lifespan. The pipeline will cross 1,700 miles and cross a number of important rivers, including the Yellowstone and Platte, as well as thousands of smaller rivers and streams.

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net

One-sided book on "fracking"

Note: See Zuckerman discuss “The Frackers” on CSPAN2, August 18^th at 9:15 to 11 pm. Coverage of “fracking” starts at 8:30 pm.  [Dish Channel 211, DirecTV Channel 351].

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“The Hardy Folks Who Found Gold in Shale”

From the Book Review by Dwight Garner, New York Times, November 5, 2013

Gregory Zuckerman, in his new book “The Frackers,” plants a not-so-cozy image in your mind. He compares hydraulic fracturing, the shooting of pressurized liquid into shale to release oil or gas deposits, to “giving the earth a massive enema.”

Fracking is an ecological nightmare, environmentalists contend, largely because of the chemical brew that drillers employ in the injection of that earth-enema. Groundwater has been contaminated; cows have died; humans may well be at risk. The issue has become politicized. Celebrity opponents have emerged.

The Rolling Stones, for example, considered all sides of the hydraulic fracturing issue in their 2012 song “Doom and Gloom” and reported: “Kind of makes your head explode/Feeling kind of hurt/Yeah.”

Don’t come to Mr. Zuckerman’s book in search of environmental exposé. Mr. Zuckerman, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, arrives instead to celebrate the wildcat frackers who have brought us, he writes, “the biggest phenomenon to hit the business world since the housing and technology booms.”

As recently as 2006, he reminds us, the apocalyptic notion of “peak oil” — the terminal decline of world petroleum supplies — was in the air. America in particular was nearly tapped out, forced to dally with (or topple) fickle Middle Eastern governments.

Alongside advances in horizontal drilling, fracking has rewritten the old equations. We are, suddenly, up to our nipples in oil and natural gas. “Soon, the nation will begin exporting gas, an unimaginable possibility just a few years ago,” Mr. Zuckerman writes.

“The Frackers” offers adulatory profiles of a half-dozen or so men. These include Harold Hamm, among the richest men in the world, who came from poverty — he was the 13th and youngest child of Oklahoma sharecroppers.  “He talked like a hick,” one of Mr. Hamm’s friends tells the author. “People thought he was a dumb country bumpkin.” That aggressive bumpkin, Forbes reported recently, is now worth some $11 billion.

If there is any joy to be had in reading about the triumphs of these men (and they are all men), it comes from watching them stick it to the energy world’s complacent established players.

Companies like ExxonMobil had long dismissed fracking, considering it expensive and impractical, and have been forced to play catch-up. Mr. Zuckerman relishes the fact that ExxonMobil’s corporate headquarters, nicknamed the Death Star, squats directly over a large shale formation the company had ignored.

How good does nonfiction writing have to be? It’s a complicated question; there are so many variables. One answer, though, is: better than this. Isn’t there cliché-isolating software publishers can put to use? If not, why not? We need an app for this.

Second-rate writing and second-rate thinking tend to arrive in tandem, like the Captain & Tennille. “The Frackers” has little of nuance to say about geology or engineering. You will not come away with a more sophisticated notion of how hydraulic fracturing or horizontal drilling works.

Close examination of fracking’s environmental issues is abjured as well. Mr. Zuckerman raises these issues only briefly, and only to dismiss them by scampering safely up the middle. “Many of the environmental threats can be addressed or are overstated,” he says. “But progress has been too slow, there have been damaging missteps, and some say there’s too little regulation.”

Other recent books drive you along dirt roads this one will not. The science is vastly more rigorous in Tom Wilber’s “Under the Surface: Fracking, Fortunes, and the Fate of the Marcellus Shale” (2012). And “The End of Country: Dispatches From the Frack Zone” (2011), by Seamus McGraw, about natural gas extraction in northeastern Pennsylvania, is soulful and well reported.

“The Frackers” reminds you that books are a bit like promising oil or natural gas fields. As the Latin phrase has it, “Omnia bona quoad perfora.” All prospects look good until drilled.

See also:  www.FrackCheckWV.net