Jack-Booted Thugs! Feds Ban Pipeline Use In Cook Inlet - Only 60% Of Pipe Lost To Corrosion!

[hatrack]

And that's at the thinnest portion - how dare those freedumb-hatin' paper-pushers hamper America's entrepreneurial spirit??!?!?

A major oil company's request to continue using a corroded undersea pipeline at an offshore platform in Cook Inlet has been roundly rejected by federal regulators.

As a result, the company, Chevron Corp., said it shut down oil production at its Anna Platform last week. Before the shutdown, the platform on the west side of Cook Inlet had been producing roughly 900 barrels of oil per day.

Before the shutdown, Chevron sought a waiver from federal rules that require pipelines in sensitive locations to be repaired when corrosion has eaten away more than 50 percent of their wall thickness.

In one section of pipe near the seafloor, the line had lost more than 60 percent of its wall thickness. Instead of fixing it, Chevron asked for permission a year ago to keep using the corroded pipeline indefinitely. Chevron proposed to inspect the pipeline periodically and inspect the area weekly by air to look for an oil sheen.

EDIT

http://www.adn.com/2010/05/07/1268807/feds-nix-corroded-undersea-pipe.html

[liberal N proud]

1. What the hell, we could kill the oceans at twice the speed

If they continued to use it we could come at it from two directions and it will be done sooner.

:sarcasm:

[The Magistrate]

2. One Wonders, Sir, Why Bother With Pipe At All Then; They Could Just Pump Oil Directly Into The Ocean

[phantom power]

3. Suck it up, soldier! That pipeline is 40% *uncorroded*!

:patriot:

[Nihil]

4. They actually *proposed* to wait until it had failed and actively leaking before fixing it?!

> Instead of fixing it, Chevron asked for permission a year ago to keep
> using the corroded pipeline indefinitely. Chevron proposed to inspect
> the pipeline periodically and inspect the area weekly by air to look
> for an oil sheen.

:wtf:

Yet the request was only "roundly rejected by federal regulators" after nearly
a year's worth of additional extraction (and spill risk) - and probably only
even then as the Gulf spill was front & centre on everyone's radar.

Note also that the "federal regulators" didn't order Chevron to shut down
the pipe but said that it would be "potentially subject to enforcement action".

Sounds like real tough "regulators" there ...

:grr: