Breaking: explosion and fire at Texas petrochemical plant

[Minstrel Boy]

So far I've seen only "breaking" banners on Houston news sites:

Crews are on the scene of an explosion and fire at the Amoco Chocolate Bayou plant in Alvin. There are no reports of injuries and no official shelter in place alert. Residents are being advised to stay inside as a precaution.
http://www.khou.com/

The Brazoria County Sheriff's Department is investigating a fire at the Amoco Chocolate Bayou plant along FM 2004. Employees were evacuated; nearby residents are being asked to shelter in place.
http://www.abclocal.go.com/ktrk/

[msongs]

1. marketing ploy to raise gas/oil prices?? nt

[jbond56]

19. more like minimal maintenance. (its cheaper)

[DBoon]

20. No unions, no environmental laws, no trial lawyers

no reason to prevent accidents like this from happening

welcome to bush's america

PS. well maybe the plant's employees are union, but if so I doubt they have any clout regarding health and safety issues

[Lori Price CLG]

23. *Exactamundo!* And, great post title, DBoon! n/t

[shadowknows69]

2. WTF

there is something amiss.

[AuntiBush]

5. My Sediments, Exactly!

Too many coincidences. Just like all those odd "identity thefts" sometimes two weekly in various banks, too many to recount (Bank of America, for one) right after that damn Bankruptcy bill against the American public - not Big Business!

[Renew Deal]

29. Your sediments?

[TroglodyteScholar]

31. ( i think you mean "my sentiment" )

[Tesha]

28. Chemical plants/refineries blow up all the time.

You just hear about them more often nowadays thanks to the internet(s).

No, I'm not joking, or being sarcastic. Lots of those places routinely
run *JUST THIS SIDE* of blowing sky high.

Tesha

[Newsjock]

3. How conveeeeeenient ...

This tinfoil hat is getting way too comfy on me.

[Changenow]

4. fill your car tonight nt

[TahitiNut]

9. Not unless you use plastic for fuel.

:shrug:

[Minstrel Boy]

11. thanks for the info

I'll change the subject line, if I still can, to petrochemical plant.

[thecrow]

6. Last night about this time it was an explosion in a MICHIGAN plant

this is way weeeeeird

[niallmac]

17. I tried to tell you people last night when the Michigan plant blew..

This has all the earmarks of another Clinton attack on the U.S.
Just like last night Bill is nowhere to be found. Do YOU know where he is? Just as I thought.
The next time this happens, and it will happen again my ditto heads, ask yourself; "Where's Bill?"
God Damn him!
...Would it be so wrong if the dues I pay to DU came from my fantasy fueled meteoric rise to stardom on RW hate radio? I think I can spew 24/7 now. All I have to do is sell my soul to the devil and I get to drive a Hummer!
:puke:

[Supersedeas]

27. Ya might wanna hold off of the Hummer--at least until the RW hate radio

sponsors start paying.

[thecrow]

35. What the.......?????

So you think Clinton did it?
Totally bizarre.

[fearnobush]

7. Remember the Enron tapes : "Burn Baby Burn." well now it's burn

refinery burn. Oh it's looking like Enron all over again, this time they are gaming the oil refineries to halt production, thus rase the price of gas and crude. Oh the joy. Watching the sept contract for crude hit $65 a barral this afternoon was just shameful.

[TahitiNut]

8. It's a major polypropylene manufacturing facility. (Plastic.)

A fire there could make lots of toxic smoke. One of the chemicals used in abundance, butadiene, is carcinogenic. That facility is over 2,400 acres in size and produces over 6 billion pounds of polypropylene and polyolefins each year. Huge.

[Sub Atomic]

10. oh well then thank god that's all it was.

i mean it is houston, for crying out loud.

what's another toxic explosion into the environment?

at least that's what dubya said, wasn't it??

[OzarkDem]

34. Will drive up the price of polypropylene

which will eventually filter its way back up to the consumer marketplace.

More fuel price increases = higher transportation & operating costs = more inflation for consumers on all goods and services, as well as higher prices for transporting raw materials.

[don954]

12. one plant can be an accident

2 is can be a fluke

Now we are at 3 if we don’t count the great big one earlier this year.

Something fishy is going on here. If its terrorists, then Bush & Co can NOT say so, their entire support for the war will evaporate & with it the big industrial military complex profits, due to the "keep the terrorists in the middle east" line the right wingers are parroting.

I don’t think its the oil companies, they have way too much invested in these plants to do this, they would be targeting supply side for "accidents" not refining side.

[alfredo]

13. I could see them doing it if they were in serious financial trouble

so they can get the insurance money, but it is not that time. They are making money hand over fist.


What could be happening is the captains of industry are lining their pockets as they cut corners, understaff, fail to upgrade and maintain.

[jayfish]

16. I Think That's Part Of It.

"What could be happening is the captains of industry are lining their pockets as they cut corners, understaff, fail to upgrade and maintain."

I also think something else might be going on here.

Jay

[alfredo]

26. for years people have been warning that our chemical plants

are at risk. It would be really bad for the bush junta if it was terrorism. Of course it would be worse if we found that accidents declared accidents were indeed terrorism.

If they were terrorism, someone would have taken credit by now.

[jayfish]

15. Highlights For 2005

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1690014
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1661274
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1579025
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1468928
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1355912
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1335609
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1334094
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1329160
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1153198

I don't know what the statistics are for these types of accidents. But without them these seem a bit fishy.

[Zorra]

21. John Kerry warned us over and over about the risk of terrorism at chemical

plants during his Presidential campaign.

Bu*h and the republicans never did a damn thing about protecting these plants from a terrorist attack.

[burrowowl]

22. Corporate terrorism

OSHA, what is OSHA!
These bastards ignore OSHA and given the maladminstrations since RayGun
OSHA has been seriously undermanned!

[lovuian]

14. texas City closes and now the Amoco plant this is going

to shoot prices up and bring those Bush polls down farther!!!

[OneBlueSky]

18. if one blows tomorrow, we'll know just how deep the shit is . . .

that we're all standing in . . . roll up the pantlegs -- it's too late to save the shoes! . . .

[tmooses]

24. Welcome to the world of self-regulated corporate safety practices.

[Not_Giving_Up]

25. I'm not too far from this

The 10 PM News had very little info, they had crews on the way. No shelter in place ordered, spokesperson would not confirm an explosion, only fire.

This is the BP Amoco Plant....Texas City BP has been quite the boomer lately as well.

[Jacobin]

30. These things blow up routinely

Lots of heat and lots of flammable materials. One screw up or one mechanical problem and they go kaboom.

Believe me, they don't want refineries off line right now. They are minting gold

[Roland99]

32. Insurance will cover the costs of repairs. In the meantime, prices go up

and they'll recoup their lost sales via that.

[rainbow4321]

33. Fire at BP subsidiary nearly extinguished (3rd explosion in 6 months)

This is the 3rd fire/explosion/incident in a year for this BP plant:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D8BTMFF80.html


A small explosion and fire at a chemical plant owned by a subsidiary of BP was nearly extinguished Thursday in the second mishap at a company facility this week.

The explosion and fire in an olefins unit forced the evacuation Wednesday night of employees. A company firefighter was flown to a hospital with heart trouble, said BP spokesman Hugh Depland.

On Wednesday, a heavy oil and gas leak occurred at BP's Gas Oil Hydrotreating Unit in Texas City, one of four units that is now shut down. The leak caused a plume of smoke that covered much of the area and prompted an order for area residents to stay inside.

In March, an explosion at the Texas City plant killed 15 people and injured scores of others. And a blast July 28 happened because contractors installed pipe in the wrong place on the Resid Hydrotreating Unit, leading to a rupture and the release of flammable hydrogen gas.

"It's very unsettling to BP as a company," Depland said. "We like to think that we try to maintain and operate our facilities in a fashion that would keep them at good operating condition."

[Joanne98]

36. OOPS! There goes gas prices! UP! Cha CHING!

[William Bloode]

37. This is the very plant my uncle works at.

He was one of those in charge when this happened.