Brittle Power- PARTS 1-3 (+Notes) - Natural Capitalism Solutions

94Disasters Waiting to Happenpower sources. Guarding was minimal—often one unarmed watchman.Procedures were so lax that “Access to all of the facilities we visited would beeasy, even for untrained personnel.” 36LNG shipments by truckMore than seventy-five insulated, double-walled trucks deliver LNG fromterminals to over one hundred satellite distribution tanks in thirty-one states, 37chiefly in urban areas. 38 Some LNG may also be imported by truck fromMontreal to New England. 39 More than ninety truckloads of LNG can leaveBoston’s Everett Distrigas terminal in a single day. 40 Though puncture-resistant,the trucks have points of weakness and a very high center of gravity,encouraging rollover accidents. 41 Each truck carries forty cubic meters ofLNG, with a heat content equivalent to a quarter of a kiloton of TNT, orabout a fiftieth of a Hiroshima yield.Before LNG trucks are loaded, they are not inspected for bombs, nor arethe drivers required to identify themselves properly. 42 Security is only marginallybetter than for potato trucks. 43 LNG trucks are easily sabotaged. Thedouble walls “are relatively thin,...and can be penetrated by a fairly smallimprovised shaped charge. Properly placed, such a charge would cause LNGto discharge into the insulation space, causing the outer jacket to fracture anddisintegrate.” 44 Further, a truck could be hijacked from its fixed route forextortion or for malicious use of its cargo. It is “particularly dangerous,because [it allows]...the easy capture, delivery, and release of a large amountof explosive material any place the terrorist chooses.” 45At least twelve LNG truck accidents had occurred in the United States by1978. Two caused spills. 46 One driver blacked out after driving far more thanthe permitted number of hours and falsifying his logbook. 47 Luckily, bothspills were in rural areas and neither ignited. Most LNG trucks leaving theEverett facility travel on the elevated Southeast Expressway, a hazardous roadwithin a few blocks of the crowded Government Center area. In the first fourmonths of 1977 alone, there were four serious accidents on the SoutheastExpressway involving tractor-trailer trucks, one of which fell off onto thestreets below. 48 An LNG truck would almost certainly break open in such anaccident. 49 The entrances to the Sumner and Callahan Tunnels are about ahundred yards downhill from the Southeast Expressway. 50 The area is alsolaced with basements, sewers, and subway tunnels into which the invisible,odorless vapor would quickly spill.“The forty cubic meters of LNG in one truck, vaporized and mixed withair into flammable proportions, are enough to fill more than one hundred and