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posted by janrinok on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:39PM   Printer-friendly
from the black-gold-is-dangerous dept.

The nation's largest oil pipeline, the Colonial Pipeline system, was shut down on Monday following an explosion that occurred during maintenance:

Colonial Pipeline Co shut down its main gasoline and distillates pipelines on Monday after an explosion and fire in Shelby, Alabama, that injured seven workers - the second time in two months it had to close the crucial supply line to the U.S. East Coast. A nine-man crew was conducting work on the Colonial pipeline system at the time of the explosion, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley told a briefing. Seven of the crew members were injured, with two evacuated by air. Four victims of the blast were taken to the UAB hospital in Birmingham, Alabama, hospital spokesman Adam Pope said.

A segment of pipeline was undergoing maintenance on Monday afternoon when it exploded. The fire had been contained as of around 9 p.m. (0100 GMT on Tuesday), according to local media reports.

Gasoline futures jumped as much as 15%:

December-delivery gasoline rose as much as 21.56 cents to $1.6351 a gallon in intraday trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange after the blast. The contract traded at $1.5675 at 9:03 a.m. in Singapore. The intraday peak was the highest for a front-month contract since June 2, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

[...] A spill in September closed Colonial for 12 days, cutting supplies to 50 million Americans in the Southeast. Alabama Governor Robert Bentley said in a tweet that the incident in Shelby County on Monday was about a mile west of the Sept. 9 incident. Colonial had planned to remove between late-October and mid-November a temporary bypass pipeline that was built around the site of the earlier spill.

Also reported at NBC, Huffington Post, and the Chicago Tribune.


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:46PM

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 01 2016, @07:46PM (#421372) Journal

    If we have cops violently beat a few more native Americans in the Dakotas, we can have even more explosions!

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @08:57PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 01 2016, @08:57PM (#421397)

    Not insightful, just trolling / flamebaiting.

    This explosion happened during maintenance, if it was sabotage they would have mentioned. I get that you are commenting based on current events, but it comes off as implicating the protesters in this explosion.

    • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 01 2016, @09:06PM

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 01 2016, @09:06PM (#421399) Journal

      I guess I get that interpretation, but... no? The joke I was making is that having more pipelines=having more booms. And that the violence the police are committing are therefor precipitating those booms by enabling the pipeline to be built.

      • (Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday November 01 2016, @10:06PM

        by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 01 2016, @10:06PM (#421420) Journal

        The joke I was making is that having more pipelines=having more booms.

        The joke crushing observation here is that pipelines mean less booms for the region around North Dakota by giving a safer transportation system than rail car.

        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by ikanreed on Tuesday November 01 2016, @10:10PM

          by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday November 01 2016, @10:10PM (#421421) Journal

          Unless slowing it has a long-term impact of affecting oil pricing in a way that further incentivizes the use of renewables, and thus decreases the amount of oil flowing in total through the region.

          I was indeed making a joke knowing full well the environmental risk per barrel of pipelines is lower than some other options, but if we're going to get into pedantic "What about the full long term consequences?" arguments, that rabbit hole is reaaaaaaaaaal deep.

          • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Tuesday November 01 2016, @10:15PM

            by bob_super (1357) on Tuesday November 01 2016, @10:15PM (#421423)

            No longer: the rabbit hole got filled with tar sands.

        • (Score: 2) by art guerrilla on Tuesday November 01 2016, @11:31PM

          by art guerrilla (3082) on Tuesday November 01 2016, @11:31PM (#421442)

          Solar Disaster !
          Widespread Chaos !
          Untold Proportions !
          Incalculable Damages !
          Um, a solar panel installer fell off the roof and broke his neck and died.
          oh...

          S-o-o-o-o-o-l-l-l-l-l-a-a-a-a-a-r-r-r-r-r ! ! !