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nation’s inventory of transmissions is at least 50 years
old.”
— Excerpt from the August 29, 2011 San Francisco
Chronicle Article, At probe’s end, San Bruno pipe’s
origin is unknown
WASHINGTON—Pipeline operators nationwide,
and their customers, will face major changes and a
hefty price tag if the National Transportation Safety
Board can persuade federal and state regulators to
implement recommendations it issued Tuesday in
response to the San Bruno disaster.
“Top among the recommendations is the
elimination of ‘grandfathering’ loopholes in federal and
state laws that ave allowed companies to run thousands
of miles of the nation’s oldest and most vulnerable
natural gas pipelines without subjecting them to the
kinds of high-pressure water tests that are required on
modern pipelines”.
— Excerpt from the August 31, 2001 San Francisco
Chronicle Article, San Bruno reforms are likely to be
costly
From coast to coast, it is clear that the for profit utility companies’
policy of ‘differed maintenance’ has resulted in a crumbling infrastructure.
Under the Clinton era ‘deregulation’ policies they have been allowed
to ‘regulate’ themselves. This has led to lawless companies who violate
federal, state, and local laws in their quest for profits.
We now have laissez-faire unregulated capitalism, with giant cartels
and monopolies openly in control of government and regulation agencies
— they are the regulators/’deciders’!
The first ‘fruit’ of deregulation was the “2000-2001 Enron/Energy
Crisis” that occurred as, under deregulation, the Energy Companies
formed corporations and energy cartels, who used their monopoly of the
power production, to price fix and then charged their subsidiary
companies higher wholesale energy prices for electricity. When the energy