Surprise! Keystone VP Vague And Evasive When Pressed By KS Legislators On Huge Pipeline Break

[hatrack]

Owners of the Keystone pipeline still don’t know why it ruptured in northern Kansas, spilling almost 13,000 barrels of oil into Mill Creek and onto surrounding farmland, an executive of the company said Tuesday. Gary Salsman, vice president of field operations for TC Energy, which owns the Keystone pipeline, testified before a joint meeting of two Kansas House committees in the morning and before the Senate Utilities Committee in the afternoon. He fielded pointed questions from lawmakers about the cause of the spill, cleanup and their concerns about TC Energy’s transparency.

EDIT

The spill was first estimated to be 14,000 barrels, or 588,000 gallons, but the company revised that estimate to 12,937 barrels. It is the largest spill in the decade-plus that the pipeline has been in operation. Salsman said the company has recovered more than 95% of the oil that was released. TC Energy has paid just more than $300,000 in fines for more than 20 previous spills. That’s 0.2% of the more than $111 million in property damage resulting from those spills.

EDIT

But Salsman failed to answer pointed questions from Rep. Lindsay Vaughn, D-Overland Park, and Rep. John Carmichael, D-Wichita. Carmichael asked Salsman when he expected the work to be done. Salsman responded that TC Energy would be on site until the area is fully remediated, which the company expects to cost about $480 million. “I understand,” Carmichael said. “My question is when do you currently expect to complete this work?”

Salsman said it would take “a few months” to complete major cleanup with “an additional few months of effort” after that. Carmichael continued to press Salsman, saying “landowners and citizens are concerned about this.” “When should we expect to be done?” Carmichael asked again. Salsman replied: “Representative, unfortunately, that’s not entirely within our control.” Carmichael concluded, “The answer is you don’t know.”

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https://kansasreflector.com/2023/03/14/keystone-oil-pipeline-was-pushed-to-bounds-of-its-permit-before-kansas-spill/

[Phoenix61]

1. It's like trying to get your teenager to tell you their homework assignment. nt

[orthoclad]

2. There are a lot of good links in that article

1. No-fly zone. WTAF? They really don't want us to see what they did. Since when do private companies exercise domain over the public airspace? Oops, duh, my bad, this is capitalism. I hope to hell that someone has hired a camera plane to fly over.

2. Pipeline integrity. One link describes how the spill happened because of a bad weld. How many million miles of weld do we have in the many thousands of miles of fossil pipeline crossing the country? I was a certifed welder, I know just how tempting it will be for a company to let bad welds slip through the QAQC.

Fossil companies regard leaks as just a cost of doing biz.
"TC Energy has paid just over $300,000 fines for more than 20 previous spills. That’s 0.2% of the more than $111 million in property damage resulting from those spills."
That's how they get those obscene profits. They cause major damage and let Other People ficx it.

Now imagine this: welding pipe in the remote Arctic dark and cold with a straw boss saying "hurry up". Do you really think they won't slip some bad welds through the QAQC? Just look at the way the weasels in the OP article talk to legislators.
Now add this: the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world. The permafrost is melting and heaving. Structures and roads are buckling and sinking. Imagine what this does to a pipeline with some bad welds.

[orthoclad]

3. Search warrants

"During his testimony, Salsman was lauded by some committee members for TC Energy’s transparency following the spill. The company dedicated a webpage to providing updates."
Gee, we have to applaud the "transparency" by taking the company's word for everything. They put up a website! I'm totally sure they're honest and accurate, by an order of magnitude.

Forget the no-fly zone. Local pols should get a search warrant to inspect the disaster, since a crime has occurred. After all, TRANS-parency has occurred.