No, none. But, a human being chose this start up date and time. Did they have to choose this date and time?
What is the point of your rant about this ‘start up date’ choice?
Nope...they could have just defaulted on the loans and bonds and not done it. Is that better?
It's not like they just flipped a switch and it was on today.
Coldest days this year, very snowy across the region?
Of course they are going to need to start up as soon as practical. And, realistically, there is no reason not to start up on a clod day either. Delays do no good for their cold customers.
I discount the reports of 300 people injured: Even in the middle of a shutdown at a larger plant you rarely see 300 people on one shift - and this supposedly right at the end during startup testing & acceptance = even less of a reason to have lots of people around.
If you mean “don’t do it today, just because it’s Sunday.” then I would would say “It’s Sunday” is not a reason not to plan work and not to do the work they planned for today, unless during the safety brief for the evolution, or during the morning start up meeting issues were brought up that could make things not as safe as they could be and that could be people tired, not all personnel necessary on site and a hundred other things. This could be the case here. During a start up, work goes on, on day shift, every day. There is no weekend. People do get days off, but not necessarily Saturday and Sunday. Night shift, usually not much happens operations wise. Although there is work done, it’s mostly routine. I look with interest to the reason this happened. Was it a natural gas explosion from a rupture, meaning 500 psi gas engulfing the Turbine Building quickly, or was it a slow leak built up without notice. The plant I work at has not had a lost time accident, an OSHA recordable, or an OSHA reportable in 10 years. Major HP steam leak is probably my biggest concern where I work. Major gas leak, number two. H2 leak, third.