Posted on 09/24/2002 9:43:28 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Do they do periodic pressure testing on pipelines?
Me too. In another article [not posted] on the subject, it was estimated that El Paso trading division made "over one hundred million" dollars on this so-called "scam".
My guess is that California made up the $3 billion figure just like they did the $9 billion that the "energy pirates" owed them: because it sounded good in press releases.
I'd second that guess. We also shouldn't forget that the California government was not buying natural gas as it was electricity. So, even if there were $50 billion in excesssive profits due to manipulation, it wouldn't be owed to "California."
California did very little direct buying of Natural Gas.
Chronicle Washington Bureau
Washington - A key senator said yesterday that he would try to kill or rewrite a federal war-powers law used to force suppliers to keep shipping natural gas to California during its electricity crisis.
Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said that a 1950 law enacted during the height of the Korean War should not be applied in peace-time to make private companies sell gas to nearly bankrupt California utilities.
Former President Clinton first invoked the Defense Production Act Jan. 19, - a day before leaving office - to allow Pacific Gas & Electric Co. to continue buying natural gas. PG&E relies on gas to make electricity, and its near bankruptcy scared off gas suppliers.
President Bush extended the gas emergency order for two more weeks after taking office, but refused any further extensions when it expired this past Wednesday.
Gramm, who chairs the Senate Banking Committee and held a hearing on the order yesterday, called the law "powerful and potentially dangerous".
National security should not be invoked to deal with utility credit problems, Gramm said. He charged it was an abuse for the federal government to make suppliers "sell to parties that they would not have supplied in the absence of the use of the police power of the federal government".
Gramm also charged that the orders had created a potential financial liability for federal taxpayers, who could wind up footing the bill if the suppliers who were ordered to provide gas are not paid in return.
But PG&E spojesman Shawn Cooper said the company intends to make its monthly gas payment to suppliers - estimated at $300 million - when the bills come due Feb. 25. PG&E, the main investor-owned utility serving Northern California, uses about 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day.
Eric Fygi, the Energy Department's acting counsel who defended the orders, said use of the act was justified because otherwise PG&E might have seized gas flowing to military bases in California and diverted it to residential customers.
Gramm, a pro-market conservative, was unconvinced, however, noting the law had been used by President Nixon to impose wage and price controls during the nation's last energy crisis in the 1970s.
"We're not going to extend the Defense Production Act as it's now written. It's either going to die or it's going to be dramatically rewritten," Gramm said. "In a free society, in the midst of peace-time, it ought to be an extraordinary action, in my opinion, for the government to be taking people's property and dictating prices."
Are you sure? (California) State building natural gas reserve ! Officials refuse to reveal details of the contract
The issue comes down to materials science. Hydrostatic testing is a way of "proofing a system." It can also make things worse by damaging a pipeing system. For example if you have modest material cracking the hydrostatic test can increase the size of some of them. Most of the piping experts I talked to (at the time) stated that repeated and frequent hydro-static testing was generally not a good idea. They urged other non-destructive testing methods.
They did some statistical magic and estimated the number of hydro-stats before the units would have to be replaced. Somehow, the maximum number always came out a few more than they would need to do.
I am thinking that NDT might not be feasable on a long pipeline. Somehow you need to get the cobalt source inside the pipeline to do X-ray testing, then reading all those films is a black art, anyway.
Eddy current testing? I had thought that was only useful on non-ferrous materials, but could be wrong.
Mag-particle inspection would probably work well, but would be really expensive. I mean, there must be a lot of weld joints in a thousand-mile pipeline.
I'm just speculating here, since I have no special knowledge other than just seeing this kind of stuff done in other environments.
Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, said that a 1950 law enacted during the height of the Korean War should not be applied in peace-time to make private companies sell gas to nearly bankrupt California utilities.
Check out the description at http: Collapsible Smart Pig for Pipeline Inspection
Back to your memory from the past! Sen. Gramm 's statement: "In a free society, in the midst of peace-time, it ought to be an extraordinary action, in my opinion, for the government to be taking people's property and dictating prices."
That is happening in a number of places not just in the buying of natural gas.
and I mean that in California with the environmentalists!!
Actuallly, at the location where the Bellingham pipeline failed a smart pig had earlier detected a discontinuity in the pipeline. If one assumed that the abnormality was caused by corrosion, the depth did not require repair under the ASME code. If it was a gouge (with stress concentration) then it required immediate repair.
The pipeline operator fought with one of its employees over the catorization of the discontinuity. The operator determined that it was a corrosion. It was also at a real low point in the line and no nearby pressure releif. It wasn't corrosion, there was a waterhammer and two boys and a young man died.
I liked your description of Diablo Canyon. When I was at Bechel Power SF Power Div Headquarters we kept hearing stories about how PG&E was having price contolled plate steel welded into I beams, because there was a shortage of I-Beams. Some things associated with the long errection of that plant were crazy.
Thanks for that information on the pipeline testing.
I am becoming even more cynical (if that's possible) about the media in this country. They might as well just make up the "news".
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