Category Archives: New Jersey

The LNG export shell game: FERC, FE, MARAD, or NEB?

If you’re a Houston fossil fuel company and you can’t get FERC approval fast enough, try FE, or MARAD! Deepwater Port Location & Status Map If that doesn’t work, ship it by land through Canada or Mexico! Local property rights, they laugh at those! Rio Grande, Suwannee River, or Hudson River: just minor obstacles to greed! If the people are tired of profit being more important than their land, water, air, or safety, it’s time to stop this fossil fuel shell game.

MARAD

Continue reading The LNG export shell game: FERC, FE, MARAD, or NEB?

NTSB tells PHMSA to fix its horrible pipeline safety methods

Tired of reporting on explosions unprevented by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). just issued a damning set of recommendations to PHMSA, plus to an alphabet soup of other organizations to ride herd on PHMSA to try to get some improvement. How about instead we stop building new pipelines and get on with solar power?

NTSB said its motivation was three recent explosions it reported: the 2009 Palm City, Florida flying pipeline that almost hit a high school, the 2010 San Bruno, California PG&E Pipeline Rupture and Fire, and the 2012 Sissonville, West Virginia I-75 house destruction, about which NTSB said:

These three accidents resulted in 8 fatalities, over 50 injuries, and 41 homes destroyed with many more damaged.

And NTSB reporting on PHMSA’s failures goes back way farther than that, Continue reading NTSB tells PHMSA to fix its horrible pipeline safety methods

Spectra buys into PennEast Pipeline for Marcellus Shale fracked gas to Transco

Apparently Williams Company’s Atlantic Sunrise pipeline wasn’t enough to push Marcellus Shale fracked methane through Transco to Sabal Trail: Spectra Energy has bought directly into that action through yet another Pennsylvania pipeline.

PennEast also announced 17 October 2014 it prefiled as FERC docket PF15-1-000. And PennEast listed some Open Houses 10,12,13, and 18 November 2014 in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, so friends and colleagues may want to go there and object, like many did at the Atlantic Sunrise PF14-8 Scoping Meetings. FERC’s ecomment system has been flooded with objections ever since the pre-filing of 7 October 2014, such as this one of 9 October 2014: Continue reading Spectra buys into PennEast Pipeline for Marcellus Shale fracked gas to Transco

Princeton asks FERC to reject, Congressmen and Senators ask for safety review

Last week, Princeton, New Jersey, resolved to ask FERC to reject Williams Transco’s current plan for a 42-inch pipeline. This week, U.S. Congress and Senate members from New Jersey asked FERC to “review all safety issues”. This is all partly because a Transco contractor was involved in an explosion in March. Spectra was the “probable cause” of the 1994 Durham Woods, NJ pipeline explosion and fire, according to NTSB. Seems like time for some town around here to ask FERC to reject the Sabal Trail pipeline, and for Congressmen and Senators to join in.

2014-06-04: Contractor being sued for Ewing explosion to build Transco pipeline in Princeton, Montgomery, By Nicole Mulvaney/The Times of Trenton, Continue reading Princeton asks FERC to reject, Congressmen and Senators ask for safety review

WALB in Albany, GA notices New England Spectra pipeline plans

A Spectra is haunting New England and the Canadian Maritimes, as well as the U.S. southeast, seeking every market for its fracked methane pipelines, sliming lands along the way. Local media are starting to pay attention to the big picture, not just the local hauntings, such as Spectra’s proposed Sabal Trail Transmission 36-inch 100-foot right of way gash through the southeast. Spectra didn’t say, but those markets could include LNG export from Excelerate Energy’s Northeast Gateway in Massachusetts Bay or the proposed Goldboro LNG export terminal in Nova Scotia. If LNG export happens, the price of “natural” gas in the U.S. and Canada will go up.

WALB TV in Albany, GA ran this PR from Spectra Energy 1 July 2014, Spectra Energy Announces Plans to Further Expand New England Pipeline Systems; Continue reading WALB in Albany, GA notices New England Spectra pipeline plans

FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects

Would this U.S. Court of Appeals ruling mean FERC needs to consider the cumulative effects of the proposed Sabal Trail pipeline on the same properties as the existing SONAT pipeline? And what about those LNG export authorizations FERC has repeatedly claimed it knows nothing about? And how can FERC justify that project at all, given that solar power is faster, cheaper, and far less environmentally damaging?

Katie Colaneri wrote for NPR 6 June 2014, Court rules federal regulators must consider cumulative impacts of pipeline project,

Regulators violated federal law by not considering the cumulative environmental impacts of multiple upgrades to a natural gas pipeline that runs from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, a federal appeals court said on Friday.

Three environmental groups argued the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should not have been allowed to conduct an environmental review for one expansion project on the Tennessee Gas Pipeline without considering three other proposed upgrades on the same line.

The U.S. Court of Appeals agreed.

The judges ruled that FERC failed “to include any meaningful analysis of the cumulative impacts of the upgrade projects.” The judges also found Continue reading FERC has to consider cumulative pipeline effects

Woman identified in last week’s Ewing, NJ gas explosion that destroyed dozens of homes

This week, Harlem, last week, Ewing, NJ, 20 years ago, Edison, NJ: methane explosions that destroyed buildings and killed at least one person, according to investigors or local officials apparently caused by gas company. This is one downside to the fracked “natural” gas industry’s answer to cold weather in the U.S. northeast.

WPVI-TV wrote 6 March 2014, Woman killed in Ewing Twp. explosion identified as Linda Cerritelli,

It all began around 11:45 a.m. when utility company PSE&G got a call from contractor Henkels and McCoy that a worker had damaged a gas line while working on an electrical problem.

Crews were working on it about an hour later when—for reasons that are still not known—the gas line ignited.

At a news conference Wednesday, Mayor Bert Steinmann said the gas line was marked out in the area where a contractor was working. Officials don’t know what went wrong.

PSE&G issued a statement saying it would not comment further until the investigation was complete.

Documents show Henkels and McCoy had been fined more than $100,000 by federal safety monitors for problems at two other New Jersey work sites. Continue reading Woman identified in last week’s Ewing, NJ gas explosion that destroyed dozens of homes

Spectra’s Durham Woods apartment fire, Edison, NJ, 1994

Children running naked into the flaming night of a Spectra pipeline fireball, thousands evacuated, hundreds made homeless, some burnt or “felled by smoke”, one woman literally scared to death, all caused by corrosion in a dent Spectra knew about years before, and NTSB says it’s up to local governments to make pipeline companies prevent it happening again.

Robert D. McFadden wrote for NYTimes 25 March 1994, EXPLOSION IN EDISON: The Overview; New Jersey Pipeline Explosion Sets Off Panic, Chaos and Fear,

A natural gas pipeline explosion that awestruck witnesses compared to a blinding, scorching nuclear blast turned a neighborhood in the central New Jersey town of Edison early yesterday into a war zone of flames, panic and chaos.


Local resident jseaton uploaded to YouTube 15 May 2006, Edison Natural Gas Explosion – Durham Woods: “This is my video footage of the gas pipeline explosion in Edison NJ (March 1994). This was taken while trying to evacuate the Durham Woods apartment complex”

Back to the NYTimes story:

Scores of residents were hurt, one death was reported and Continue reading Spectra’s Durham Woods apartment fire, Edison, NJ, 1994

Gas line ruptures under Raritan River

Central New Jersey last week, Alabama, Georgia, or Florida next year, under the Chattahoochee, the Flint, the Withlacoochee, the Suwannee, the Santa Fe, or the Ichetucknee River? Both Spectra and Williams Transco have pipelines under the Raritan River, and they want pipelines under our rivers.

Tom Davis wrote for New Brunswick Patch 14 February 2014, UPDATE: Ruptured Gas Line In Raritan River; Local Roads Closed,

The Fire Department and PSE&G are currently working on a ruptured gas line which runs under the Raritan River.

Due to a ruptured gas line in the vicinity of the Raritan River, portions of Johnson Drive will be closed to traffic. Expect delays and/or possible detours. The New Brunswick Fire Department and PSE&G are on scene and are not requiring any evacuations at this time.

There is no need for evacuation at this time. There is a strong odor of natural gas in the area.

Nicholas West posted a video on New Brunswick today that same day: Gas Line Ruptures in the Middle of the Raritan River: Continue reading Gas line ruptures under Raritan River

A 36-inch pipeline blews up in Alabama

The pipeline Sabal Trail wants to connect to, Williams Transco in Alabama, blew up in 2011, flaming a hundred feet up, heard more than 30 miles away, left a crater more than 50 feet wide, destroyed 65 acres of trees, fried five acres of soil into pottery, and launched a 43-foot pipe section as a missile that landed 190 feet away. The cause was never announced. There was no construction going on, so could it be corrosion? Do we want another pipeline like that?

TXsharon wrote for Bluedaze drilling reform 2 January 2012, Pictures: Acres of devastation from Williams gas pipeline explosion in Alabama

Williams did some pigging just before this pipeline rupture but they didn’t receive the pigging results until after the explosion. The word from the locals in Alabama is that Williams is now frantically digging up parts of this same pipeline in several different locations which could indicate the problem is not isolated.Williams does not have a good track record of pipeline safety.

Jason Cannon wrote for Demopolis Times 3 December 2011, No cause known in explosion,

A Transco natural gas pipeline ruptured at approximately 3:07 p.m. Saturday with an explosion that could be heard for more than 30 miles while shooting flames nearly 100 feet in the air for over an hour….

Continue reading A 36-inch pipeline blews up in Alabama