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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: longnshort who wrote (916432)	1/22/2016 10:43:41 AM
From: FJB	1 Recommendation Recommended By locogringo Respond to of 1575544

Methane leak debacle needs a broad investigation sandiegouniontribune.com Some Brown critics suggest the governor’s actions to combat a methane leak in California’s Aliso Canyon have been stymied by the governor’s sister, Kathleen L. Brown. The sister is a member of the board of directors at Sempra Energy, a subsidiary of Southern California Gas Company (SoCal Gas), the company responsible for the leak. The massive natural gas leak at an 8,500-foot-deep well in Southern California Gas Company’s huge Aliso Canyon storage facility just outside Los Angeles’ northern city limits is far more than an “unfortunate incident.” That’s how it is characterized on in an op-ed written for the Union-Tribune this week by a senior vice president of the company, which is owned by San Diego-based Sempra Energy. The leak, which was discovered Oct. 23, is both a disaster and a debacle. It has forced residents of nearly 2,500 homes in the Porter Ranch community to relocate for health reasons, and thousands more homes are likely to be reviewed for possible relocation as well. Meanwhile, state officials estimate the leak has released 77 million kilograms of methane (the main component in natural gas) — resulting in a 25 percent increase in normal methane output in California, according to Newsweek. SoCalGas officials now think they can cap the well by late February, ahead of previous expectations, but that still would mean the well had been fouling the climate and keeping thousands from their homes for four months straight. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is outraged. “This is an unprecedented environmental disaster for Los Angeles,” he told the Los Angeles Daily News. “[Aliso Canyon] feels like a crime scene. ...There should be resolution not just in the short term, but long-term accountability.” We’re far from ready to conclude a crime or crimes were committed. In a November 2014 regulatory filing making the case for a rate hike, SoCalGas acknowledged concerns about leaks, saying it needed more revenue to increase and improve its inspections and repairs of older wells. That doesn’t seem to be the action of a utility determined to skirt rules. But it is obvious that there needs to be a sweeping, thorough investigation of how this happened. Given the evidence that both Pacific Gas & Electric’s lax upkeep and state regulatory failures contributed to the deadly 2010 natural gas pipeline explosion at San Bruno, Californians need assurances that these sorts of destructive fiascoes won’t keep happening. A good starting point looks to be SoCalGas’ state-approved practices at the leaking well, known as SS 25, a storage well at which natural gas is both injected into and withdrawn. According to a Tuesday inewsource.org report, some well experts consider what the company was doing to be “legal but risky.” According to state records, it “injected and withdrew gas through the entire diameter of the well, rather than only through the narrower tubing that runs down the middle of it,” inewsource.org reported — something that sharply increases pressure on the well casing. The well casing also was not completely surrounded by cement reinforcement. On Tuesday, after touring the Aliso Canyon facility, Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, expressed specific concerns about 18 “vintage wells” on the property dating to the 1950s. He questioned whether the 3,600-acre storage site can ever be made safe. That seems to jump to a lot of conclusions. But the fear it reflects shows why we need a thorough official investigation not just of SoCalGas but state regulatory practices. The stakes are too high — and the concerns about public safety are too deep — to do otherwise.