Kinder Morgan Marked by Spills ("the poster child for pipeline problems")

[arwalden]

http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2005/08/23/KinderMorgan/

Kinder Morgan Marked by Spills

Trouble in Tuscon Terasen suitor's many pipelines figure in several U.S. disasters, including a very deadly one.
By Jeremy Nuttall
Published: August 23, 2005



TheTyee.ca

Kinder Morgan, the company that hopes to take over the B.C. gas utility Terasen, is “the poster child for pipeline problems,” according to Carl Weimer, executive director of the Bellingham, Washington--based Pipeline Safety Trust.

Weimer says Kinder Morgan has a poor safety record, which he attributes to the company taking over a huge network of pipelines in a short time frame. “They’ve expanded rapidly and a lot of the pipelines they took over are older pipelines. And that has undercut some of the safety,” he says.

Weimer, whose trust is funded by a court-ordered endowment created after an Olympic Pipe Line Co. pipeline in Bellingham burst and then exploded in 1999, killing three and destroying Whatcom Creek, says ongoing internal inspection is the best way to stay on top of pipeline maintenance. Weimer adds that Terasen has a good record on this front. “Hopefully the personnel won’t go through a dramatic change” during the takeover, he says, given Terasen staff’s credible record.

According to Terasen, many of their pipelines are approaching 50 years of age, and some, particularly under Vancouver, are as old as 70 years. Many of the lines Kinder Morgan took over in the U.S. are around 50 years old, says Weimer, which has resulted in several failures on its network.

continued... http://www.thetyee.ca/News/2005/08/23/KinderMorgan/

[elehhhhna]

1. K-M is the child of Enron. 'Nuff said.

[Spazito]

2. Excellent article! This does not bode well for us in B.C., imo

Their connection with Enron says it all. Once they get their greedy paws on Terasen, the price of natural gas, already sky high, will become even more outrageous.

[HEyHEY]

3. Especially after a few pipelines blow up causing gas shortages

Much like a few problems in Enron owned electrical companies skyrocketed energy in California.... remember those tapes of the enron guys laugh and saying "Burn baby burn" during the California wildfires because they knew it would drive up energy costs?

[HEyHEY]

4. So, anyone satisfied with the opposition's work on this deal?

I'm not.. why are they and the Libs so silent?

[CHIMO]

5. Digging Around

On this issue and a bit or serendipity I remembered a current article on the NAFTA bit.

The people with egg on their face are understandably a little bit pissed off to say the least.

This may be a bit far out but one person that seems to be a bit like Mo Mowland also seems to be "pissed off".

This is from a recent Globe and Mail article.

Trading with the 'schoolyard bully'

Ms. Carney believes that Ottawa should order a freeze on all American investments in Canadian energy companies, claiming it is in the interest of national security.

The Americans, she says, know full well that "when you talk about security, you are really talking protectionism."

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050820/NAFTA20/TPNational/?query=energy+security

If you could get her to start a parade you might be able to have everyone join in to be the leader. Just a suggestion.

[V. Kid]

7. Yeah they needed to highlight more of the potential problems...

...but they've been pretty silent over the summer, mostly setting up constituency offices and what not I suppose. But the only two NDP MLA's I've heard anything substantial from have been Bob Simpson and Adrian Dix. The Liberals haven't been very impressive on this either, fwiu they can stop this sale if they want to.

[HEyHEY]

6. Shane Simpson is saying the sale should be held up until the US

Office of pipeline safety has finished their investigation