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

Chapter Eight: Liquified Natural Gas 99areas we examined are impervious to sabotage, and most are highly vulnerable. 80Moreover,In many facilities, by manipulating the equipment, it is possible to spill a largeamount of [LEG]... outside the diked area through the draw-off lines. LEG storagefacilities in cities are often adjacent to sites that store very large quantities of otherhazardous substances, including other volatile liquids. Thus, a single cause mightsimultaneously destroy many tanks, or a spill at one facility might cause furtherfailures at adjacent facilities. 81These might include ports, refineries, tank farms, or power stations. For example,although the Cove Point, Maryland LNG terminal is not near a city, it isfive miles upwind—well within plume range—of the Calvert Cliffs nuclearpower plant, which probably could not withstand being enveloped in a fireball.The General Accounting Office report concluded:Nuclear power plants are built to higher standards than any other type of energyinstallation, much higher than those for LEG installations. Nevertheless, they arenever located in densely populated areas. We believe that new large LEG facilitiesalso should not be located in densely populated areas. 82LNG shipments and facilities likewise perforate America’s industrial heartland.Even the most sensitive “chokepoints” are put at risk. In February 1977,for example, LNG was being trucked along the Staten Island Expressway andacross the Verrazano Narrows and Goethals Bridges. 83 Seven Mile Bridge, theonly land access to the lower Florida Keys, was heavily damaged by a recentpropane-truck explosion, 84 which could as well have occurred on any urbanbridge in America. It is apparently common for LNG shipments to pass nearmajor oil, gas, and nuclear facilities, few if any of which could withstandenvelopment in a burning gas cloud. While many local authorities would liketo restrict such shipments before a catastrophe, the regulation of such interstatecommerce is federally pre-empted; and so far, despite the devastatingcriticisms by the General Accounting Office, the dozen or so responsible federalagencies have done little of substance to improve safety.Perhaps additional LNG imports, brought by eighty-plus large tankers intoa half-dozen U.S. terminals, will never happen as enthusiasts once hoped, ifonly for the economic reasons alluded to earlier. But unless tackled directly,the clear and present dangers from present LNG and—on a far greater scale—LPG operations will persist. Later chapters will show that all the energy nowsupplied by LNG and LPG can be replaced by much cheaper sources whichdo not compromise national security.