[UPDATE: Koch Brothers Connection?]
The last thing you want when you're waiting to get a new construction permit approved is for one of your existing buildings to collapse.
It's just doesn't inspire confidence.
That's the situation facing TransCanada Corp. following a 20,000 gallon spill Saturday from its Keystone oil pipeline. The Canadian company is waiting for approval from the U.S. State Department to build a controversial $7 billion, "Keystone XL," a larger, longer pipeline to carry heavy oil from oil sand fields in Alberta nearly 2,000 miles to refineries in Texas.
The Keystone pipeline (30" pipe) only goes as far as Oklahoma and moves roughly a half-million barrels of oil a day. It's big brother (36" pipe) could carry twice that volume and stretch all the way down to southernmost Texas.
Saturday's spill in North Dakota happened when a valve failed, according to TransCanada spokesman, Terry Cunha, causing 500 barrels of the heavy oil to leak, spraying 60-feet into the air.
A local county commissioner praised TransCanada's quick response to the spill, but also told the press "I have to confess: I did not anticipate the we would have a problem this soon."
That's because the pipeline is less than a year old. And a risk analysis submitted by the company had predicted that a 50 barrel leak was anticipated once in a seven-year period.
Asked about the seeming conflict between the risk analysis and real-world experience, Cunha had an answer -- one that only raised more doubts about TransCanada.
The risk analysis, said Cunha, only included leaks from the pipe itself -- not from the pump houses that dot the route. The valve that failed last Saturday was in a pump house, Cunha explained, so the seven-year risk analysis is still good.
The mind reels.
Most Americans know enough about used-car warranties to understand that the fine print is everything. Let's hope that the State Department does more than kick the tires and slam the doors a couple of times on the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
With a million barrels of heavy oil a day moving across the nation's midsection, the wrong decision here could cause a really, really nasty wreck.
