Pipeline Spills Put Safeguards Under Scrutiny

This summer, an Exxon Mobil pipeline carrying oil across Montana burst suddenly, soiling the swollen Yellowstone River with an estimated 42,000 gallons of crude just weeks after a company inspection and federal review had found nothing seriously wrong. Crews in July picked up booms to contain oil in the Kalamazoo River near Marshall, Mich. And in the [...]

San Bruno one year on…Consumers will be asked to help pay for billions in gas pipeline upgrades needed after Bay Area blast.

Three of California’s largest utilities are asking customers to help pay for nearly $4 billion in pipeline safety projects needed after last year’s deadly San Bruno disaster. Power companies and private operators across the nation are racing to improve the safety of about 150,000 miles of natural gas pipelines built before 1970 — about half [...]

Pipeline to power the Olympics

RUSSIA — The recently commissioned Dzhubga – Lazarevskoye – Sochi Pipeline will not only bring gas to the city of Sochi, Russia, but to the Olympics as well, as Sochi is transformed into a Winter Olympics Games host city and a mountain resort. Up until recently, half of the Black Sea coast cities and town [...]

Oil spill brings calls for scrutiny of small lines

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A northwestern Montana oil spill that went unreported for a month has led to calls for increased scrutiny over the thousands of small flow pipelines within the nation’s oil and gas fields. Flow lines are completely contained within the fields and pipe unprocessed oil, gas and water from wells to holding tanks [...]

City’s gas lines require constant vigilance

FARMINGTON — Millions of cubic feet of natural gas pass beneath the city of Farmington in underground pipelines on a daily basis. The San Juan Basin has one of the largest natural gas reserves in the world, and its exploitation directly increases the risk of pipeline malfunctions. This is an issue that has become part [...]

Valley residents want old pipelines out

Poll shows most customers willing to pay more to replace aging pipes. Lehigh Valley residents think the state should push utilities to get aging natural gas lines out of the ground, and they’re willing to help shoulder the cost. A new Morning Call-Muhlenberg College Quality of Life poll shows that more than 80 percent of [...]

Pennsylvania blowout fuels fracking fears

PITTSBURGH, April 22 (UPI) — A blowout at a Pennsylvania natural gas well has fueled increased concerns about the already controversial practice of hydraulic fracking. The well, owned by Chesapeake Energy Corp., experienced an equipment failure Tuesday, sending chemical-laced water over the drilling site in Bradford County, Pa. and into nearby waterways, including Towanda Creek, [...]

Danger underground: Aging natural gas lines a concern

More than 120 miles of cast-iron natural gas lines still lie beneath streets and byways in Northeast Pennsylvania, an aging infrastructure UGI Utilities Inc. says it is already aggressively replacing amid growing pressure on utilities nationwide to step up the pace. With the investigation into a deadly gas explosion two months ago in Allentown squarely [...]

Latest Pennsylvania Business

PIPELINE SAFETY Federal hearing in Pa. addresses gas pipelines KING OF PRUSSIA, Pa. (AP) A utility executive says it’s possible a leak in a natural gas pipeline developed after an inspection that took place one day before an explosion that killed five people in Allentown last month. At a hearing on pipeline safety in King [...]