Texas refinery outages bring orders to stay inside

[sonias]

AP via Google News 4/26/11
Texas refinery outages bring orders to stay inside

TEXAS CITY, Texas (AP) — Schools canceled classes and residents were urged to stay inside Tuesday after power outages shut down three Houston-area refineries, including BP unit where a 2005 explosion killed 15 people, and a Dow Chemical plant.

Emergency officials were working to determine what caused the Texas City outages, which a spokeswoman for Texas New Mexico Power company said involved a "customer-owned equipment problem."

Utility spokeswoman Cathy Garber said the company provides power to the affected plants but was not the source of the outages. Garber said four "events" affected transmission lines Monday night, but said she did not have details.

Texas City's emergency sirens sounded and residents were advised to stay indoors as a precaution after the BP refinery and Dow plant lost power about 11 p.m. Monday, Texas City Homeland Security coordinator Bruce Clawson said. Valero and Marathon Oil refineries lost power nearly six hours later.

Officials said there were no immediate reports of hazardous emissions.

Crazy. Things are just getting crazier by the day.

[sonias]

1. Texas City power outages not a grid issue; salt may be to blame

Fuel Fix blog 4/26/11

Texas City power outages not a grid issue; salt may be to blame

The power outages that hit several Texas City oil refineries and chemical plants overnight and Tuesday morning appear to be related to equipment on site at those facilities and are not related to power generation or transmission issues.

Cathy Garber, a spokeswoman for Texas New Mexico Power — the company that owns the power lines in the Texas City area — said there appear to have been four events starting at 9:30 p.m. Monday in which 138-kilovolt lines went offline.

(snip
The exact cause of the outages on the customer sites isn’t clear, Garber said, but the lack of rain in the area could have allowed salt from the sea air to accumulate on equipment and cause equipment to short out.

These energy industries are doing a horrible job at maintenance. This year we've had the winter black-out for failure to "weatherize" power plants and now sea salt accumulation is causing shortages at refineriers. Does anyone have any faith that the South Texas Nuclear plant is being maintained as it should be? :grr:

Corporations just don't give a damn about safety - they only care about their bottom line. And maintenance is so damn expensive. Why not just take a risk and pay out if it really comes necessary. Or better yet let the general population pay for the clean up - ala BP and the Gulf Oil spill. :puke:

[ret5hd]

2. re: safety---google hydrogen embrittlement.

every piece of oil industry related equipment more than a few years old is subject to this.

when we talk of our deteriorating infrastructure, this is one subject no one wants to talk about.

every refinery, every pipe, every pump, every valve

[white cloud]

3. Deregulated Power Industry

Deregulated Power Industry and NO ONE performing normal maintenance on transmission line( shut down and wash off salt accumulation on insulator). I got the same problem in my area, only it is trees and vine that nobody will take care of. We lose power 8- 10 times a years for several hour. Called and report limb and vine in PL and they said O we will schedule it soon.

[sonias]

5. Deregulation is absolutely the major cause of these failures

And think of how many jobs would be created/saved if people did the jobs they used to do keeping us safe and actually manufacturing goods and services in the U.S.:patriot:

Now thanks to the "no government, no taxes" crew that's been chipping away for decades, at what was the bedrock of this country, we're slipping into being a third world country as far as our dilapidated infrastructure. :(

[sonias]

4. Oh crap

This is horrible. Thanks for the tip. I didn't know this term or the problems associated with it.

From wikipedia

Use of the term in this context is common in the nuclear industry.

:scared:

[sonias]

6. Videos at Houston Chronicle

Houston Chronicle 4/26/11

From the Web: Video reports of the Texas City outage
Video roundup on the Texas City plant power outage:

Lots of video stories of "Flare City"

:kick:

[Lisa0825]

7. Yeah, I live about 2 miles from the plants. Was stuck inside with no AC until

about 1pm. It was starting to get stuffy in here!

And how about this....? After being told all day that sheltering was "just a precaution", now....

http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news%2Flocal&id=8095805

TX City chemical levels too high to be read by equipment

"The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality now says the air on Tuesday morning in Texas City was so toxic that monitoring equipment couldn't go high enough to detect it all. The meters were pegged. That despite the fact we were told by at least three separate Texas City first responders that monitors didn't find anything out of the ordinary following the flares. "

I just posted this article in LBN. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4828615

[onestepforward]

8. I just saw your post.

Just horrible. Sorry to hear you had to go through that plus getting false information to boot.

[sonias]

9. Holy crap Lisa

I am so sorry you have to go through this. I heard the part about staying indoors with your A/C off - :wtf: This is practically summer in Texas and they expect you to get through that with no A/C?

:hug:

TCEQ is and always has been worthless. That agency is being sunsetted this Legislative session. Normally that would be a good thing - because the worthless agency would be put down - shown for what it is - a captured agency of the polluting industry. But get this - republican dimwit ass hat (Warren Chisum) proposed making the complainant in a contested case responsible for the costs - rather than the polluting industry. So now it will cost you the taxpayer to complain to TCEQ about some damn polluting industry in your neck of the woods. Instead of the damn polluting industry defending it's right to pollute. :eyes:

AAS 4/19/11
House passes TCEQ sunset bill but softens agency's bite

(snip)
The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality will likely continue its work through 2023 after the House approved a so-called sunset bill that continues the agency.

But first the House approved an amendment by state Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, to streamline the regulatory process by shifting the burden of proof in hearings on controverial permits from companies applying for a permit to the party contesting it.

Environmentalists said such a change could make it cost-prohibitive for communities to oppose permits because of added litigation costs.

It's not a law yet, but honestly the way things are flying through the Legislative session I don't see anything stopping it. :mad:

[sonias]

10. Power problems persist for Dow, BP, others in Texas City

Fuel Fix 4/27/11
Power problems persist for Dow, BP, others in Texas City *updates*

Electric power issues continue to plague some Texas City refineries and chemical plants Wednesday, following problems Monday and Tuesday that led to shutdowns of several huge industrial facilities, flares and shelter-in-place warnings.

(snip)

“However, Dow cannot restart the units until we have a higher level of confidence in the reliability of power supply,” she said in a statement. “We are working with Texas New Mexico Power (the local power grid operator) to identify a solution.”

*Update 2*

BP’s 470,000-barrel-per-day Texas City refinery remains offline because two power lines serving it have been down.

:kick:

[white cloud]

11. Lot of funny thing going on

Storage at peak and demand down due to price.

Maybe they wanted a shut down to deplete the surplus and keep price up???

Cushing OK tank farm is topped out?

If you don't like the answer make up a good lie "RNC"

[sonias]

12. You and I are thinking the same thing

I always get suspicious at any of these "outages" that cause the price of gasoline to go up. If there's money to be made the greedy oil and gas industry is making sure they make the maximum amount they can.

Yahoo News 4/25/11
White House lashes oil firms ahead of earnings

(snip)
Markets are awaiting quarterly results from firms including ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips and Chevron this week.

First-quarter earnings at four of the largest oil companies are expected to improve by 22 percent to 56 percent, according to the latest poll of analysts by Thomson Financial.

According to the US Energy Information Administration, the average cost of a gallon of gasoline in the United States is close to four dollars, a rise of nearly a dollar over a year ago.

:grr:

[white cloud]

13. Just look at

Enron and Kenny boy Bush