The National Transportation Safety Board tore into the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) yesterday, citing decades of mismanagement as the probable cause of the massive natural gas explosion that killed eight people and destroyed an entire neighborhood in San Bruno, CA, on Sept. 9, 2010. NTSB Chairperson Deborah Hersman also called out the California
[continue reading...]
To here the natural gas industry tell it, shale gas is the silver bullet that will solve all our country’s energy problems, prod the national economy back into productivity and cure the common cold, all at once. Well, if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is, and such is the case with
[continue reading...]
Okay, so perhaps this post really should be titled, “The Last Two Weeks in Natural Gas Leaks and Explosions,” because what with the recent visit to the White House and all the other content that needed creating, last week’s episode sort of fell by the wayside. Unfortunately, this was a particularly destructive and devastating week
[continue reading...]
Today, NaturalGasWatch.org spent the day at the White House in Washington, D.C., participating in the White House Office of Public Engagement‘s Community Leaders Briefing Series. The afternoon was given over to a briefing on energy and environmental policy. The event itself was fascinating and engaging, bringing together a diverse crew of attendees — including elected
[continue reading...]
Kinder Morgan, the company that owns the Natural Gas Pipeline Co. of America, where an explosion sent five employees to the hospital on Tuesday, has a lengthy record of pipeline and workplace safety violations, according to federal records obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org. According to one media account, Tuesday’s accident injured the members of a welding crew
[continue reading...]
The natural gas industry has embraced hydraulic fracturing, or fracking as it has come to be known in the parlance of our times, and its advocates are actively engaged in positioning it as the silver bullet that will solve virtually all of our nation’s energy woes. But to say that there are legitimate concerns about
[continue reading...]
Chesapeake Energy pumped more than 1.4 million gallons of fluid to a depth of more than 2 miles at a natural gas well in Bradford County, Pennsylvania, before a blowout sent tens of thousands of gallons of the toxic liquid coursing over fertile farmland and into a nearby creek, according to documents obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org.
[continue reading...]
Citing budget guts that have forced a drawdown in personnel, the head of Jersey City’s firefighters union said recently that first responders would be overwhelmed and unable to handle a disaster in the event of a failure of the proposed Spectra natural gas pipeline there. “Due to the economic recession and budget cuts we are
[continue reading...]
Major news in natural gas leaks and natural gas explosions this week, so let’s get right to it, shall we? Of course, the big story was the news that New York’s Millenium Pipeline, which services the state’s Southern Tier, may be riddled with faulty welds and of dubious integrity — or, as the investigating authorities
[continue reading...]
Federal regulators suspect that a major natural gas pipeline in New York may be riddled with faulty welds and have ordered the pipeline’s operator to take immediate protective action to prevent a tragedy, according to documents obtained by NaturalGasWatch.org. The federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PMHSA) issued the order on July 6, in
[continue reading...]
