Crude By Rail, Derailment, Emergency Readiness & Response, Explosion, Fire

Armored vehicle requested for oil train derailment rescue readiness

Repost from the PostBulletin, Rochester MN
[Editor:  See  highlighted text  below for oil train reference.  Also for background see Mother Jones, Documents Reveal the Fearmongering Local Cops Use to Score Military Gear From the Pentagon (no references to oil train derailments)  – RS]

Local law enforcement: We need armored vehicles

Heather J. Carlson, Aug 15, 2015 10:13 am
sheriffs mrap
The Olmsted County Sheriff’s Deparment owns this retired U.S. Military MRAP Armored Vehicle. Scott Jacobson

Local law enforcement agencies applying for armored vehicles from the Pentagon cited high-profile visitors to Mayo Clinic, Rochester’s expected population growth and the Prairie Island nuclear plant in their requests.

Mother Jones recently made public more than 450 law enforcement agencies’ applications for Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles, or MRAPs. Those documents show that in 2013 the Austin Police Department, Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office and Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office all applied for an armored vehicle.

In its application, the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office noted that “Rochester/Olmsted County is home to the Mayo Clinic which routinely hosts Foreign Heads of State and VIPs.” It also mentioned the potential population growth expected to accompany Destination Medical Center — a $6 billion initiative to transform Rochester into a global destination for health care.

The county’s application proved to be successful, with the sheriff’s office receiving an armored vehicle in 2013. Capt. Scott Behrns, of the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office, filled out the Pentagon application and said having so many VIPs and foreign heads of state visiting the city every year is a security concern.

“We get more VIPs here than people realize, I think. And a lot of it is very low key and handled well, but when they are here it does pose a security threat and we certainly don’t want anything to happen to a visiting VIP, a foreign head of state while they are here visiting the clinic,” he said.

Behrns said the MRAP isn’t routinely used for these visits but is available in case something goes wrong and individuals need to be rescued quickly from a dangerous situation.

Rochester Police Chief Roger Peterson said it’s difficult to estimate just how many foreign dignitaries local authorities help protect because it can vary dramatically from year to year. Generally, the police department teams up with the Secret Service or the State Department to provide security.

“It’s not used as a standard measure, but if things do go horribly awry, there are resources you can rely on. Fortunately, we haven’t had to make that decision. All of the visits we’ve had have gone well,” Peterson said.

The use of armored vehicles and other military equipment has come under increased scrutiny since last year’s police shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown and the violence that followed in Ferguson, Mo.

Billions of dollars worth of military equipment from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been given to local law enforcement agencies across the country.

A seven-member police oversight commission was recently established in Rochester to review police policies and practices, and that commission could address the issue of military equipment. Commission Chairman Allan Witz could not be reached for comment for this article.

A way to prevent violence?

Local law enforcement agencies that have received armored vehicles say they have helped prevent possible violence. Behrns said Olmsted County’s MRAP was sent to Fillmore County last year after a potentially armed suspect with explosives barricaded himself in a bus on a remote farmyard. After the armored vehicle arrived, authorities were able to arrest the man peacefully.

“(The suspect) did make a statement to the effect that because we had the big vehicle, he knew were weren’t leaving and he decided to give up,” Behrns said.

Fears about the safety of officers prompted the Austin Police Department to apply for an MRAP, according to Austin Police Detective Todd Clennon. The idea to try to get the military vehicle came after a woman was shot in rural Mower County. Police were faced with the tough task of trying to apprehend armed men on the property, which had a long driveway surrounded by an open field.

“Ultimately, my guys used great skill and decision making and jumped in the back of a 4-wheel drive pickup truck and bounced their way through a mile of a corn field with their weapons and gear,” Clennon said.

The police managed to get behind a farm building and arrest the men safely. But the incident got Clennon thinking and he decided to look into getting an armed vehicle for these types of high-risk arrest situations. They applied in 2013, citing that the police department and Mower County Sheriff’s Office have a joint Special Incident Response Team. They received an armored vehicle in 2013.

Goodhue County rejects armed vehicle grant

Goodhue County Sheriff’s Office applied for a grant in 2013 for an armored vehicle, noting that the department is responsible for responding to threats against Prairie Island nuclear plant. The department’s initial request was unsuccessful. They applied again last year and late last month, the department learned it had received a grant for a $325,000 armored vehicle.

But before the department can get the vehicle, the county board has to sign off on an $81,000 local match. Goodhue County Sheriff Scott McNurlin said last year that the board voted unanimously in favor of the department applying for the grant and planned to set the money aside for the local match. But on Thursday, the Goodhue County Board of Commissioners voted 3 to 2 against accepting the grant. Opponents cited concerns about the local cost. It is possible that the board may reconsider the issue at its Tuesday meeting.

The county has a 32-year-old armored vehicle, but McNurlin said its “woefully outdated.”  The new vehicle would have a pressurized interior, making it an ideal rescue vehicle in the case of a potential nuclear disaster or oil train derailment. 

“If there ever was an unfortunate incident at the power plant and a release was imminent or could occur, we can use the vehicle to actually evacuate people because it has the self-contained unit,” he said.

Goodhue County Commissioner Brad Anderson voted in favor of getting the armored vehicle and said he hopes fellow commissioners will change their minds and back the proposal.

Anderson added, “They should have said no last year if they seriously didn’t want to do it. Times haven’t changed.”

Carbon emissions, Carbon footprint, Carbon sequestration, Climate Change, Fossil fuels, Global warming

We Have Already Consumed a Year’s Supply of the Planet’s Resources in Less Than 8 Months

Repost from EcoWatch

We Have Already Consumed a Year’s Supply of the Planet’s Resources in Less Than 8 Months

Global Footprint Network | August 16, 2015 10:20 am

In less than eight months, humanity has used up nature’s budget for the entire year, with carbon sequestration making up more than half of the demand on nature, according to data from Global Footprint Network, an international sustainability think tank with offices in North America, Europe and Asia.

noplanb

Global Footprint Network tracks humanity’s demand on the planet (Ecological Footprint) against nature’s ability to provide for this demand (biocapacity). Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity’s annual demand on nature exceeds what Earth can regenerate in that year. Earth Overshoot Day has moved from early October in 2000 to Aug. 13 this year.

The costs of this ecological overspending are becoming more evident by the day, in the form of deforestation, drought, fresh-water scarcity, soil erosion, biodiversity loss and the buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. The latter will significantly amplify the former, if current climate models are correct. Consequently, government decision-makers who factor these growing constraints in their policy making will stand a significantly better chance to set their nation’s long-term economic performance on a favorable track.

“Humanity’s carbon footprint alone more than doubled since the early 1970s, when the world went into ecological overshoot. It remains the fastest growing component of the widening gap between the Ecological Footprint and the planet’s biocapacity,” said Mathis Wackernagel, president of Global Footprint Network and the co-creator of the Ecological Footprint resource accounting metric.

“The global agreement to phase out fossil fuels that is being discussed around the world ahead of the Climate Summit in Paris would significantly help curb the Ecological Footprint’s consistent growth and eventually shrink the Footprint.”

The carbon footprint is inextricably linked to the other components of the Ecological Footprint—cropland, grazing land, forests and productive land built over with buildings and roads. All these demands compete for space. As more is being demanded for food and timber products, fewer productive areas are available to absorb carbon from fossil fuel. This means carbon emissions accumulate in the atmosphere rather than being fully absorbed.

A Second Chance

The climate agreement expected at the United Nations Conference of Parties (COP) 21 this December will focus on maintaining global warming within the 2-degrees-Celsius range over pre-Industrial Revolution levels. This shared goal will require nations to implement policies to completely phase out fossil fuels by 2070, per the recommendations of the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), directly impacting the Ecological Footprints of nations. .

Assuming global carbon emissions are reduced by at least 30 percent below today’s levels by 2030, in keeping with the IPCC’s suggested scenario, Earth Overshoot Day could be moved back on the calendar to September 16, 2030 (assuming the rest of the Footprint would continue to expand at the current rate), according to Global Footprint Network.

This is not impossible. In fact, Denmark has cut its emissions over the last two decades at this rate: Since the 1990s, it reduced its carbon emissions by 33 percent. Had the world done the same (while not changing the rest of the Footprint), Earth Overshoot Day would be on Oct. 3 this year.

This is not to say that Denmark has already reached a sustainable Ecological Footprint. Humanity would require the resources of nearly 3 planets if everyone lived like the Danes, which would move Earth Overshoot Day to May 8.

GFN_EOS_infographic_v5

Business as usual 

By contrast, business as usual would mean using the resources equivalent to two planets by 2030, with Earth Overshoot Day moving up on the calendar to the end of June.

This projection assumes that biocapacity, population growth and consumption trends remain on their current trajectories. However, it is not clear whether a sustained level of overuse is possible without significantly damaging long-term biocapacity, with consequent impacts on consumption and population growth.

Tipping Point

“We are encouraged by the recent developments on the front line of renewable energy, which have been accelerating worldwide, and by the increasing awareness of the finance industry that a low-carbon economy is the way of the future,” said Wackernagel. “Going forward, we cannot stress enough the vital importance of reducing the carbon footprint, as nations are slated to commit to in Paris. It is not just good for the world, but increasingly becoming an economic necessity for each nation. We all know that the climate depends on it, but that is not the full story: Sustainability requires that everyone live well, within the means of one planet. This can only be achieved by keeping our Ecological Footprint within our planet’s resource budget.”

Additional Resources

To calculate your own personal Ecological Footprint, and learn what you can do to reduce it, click here.
For free public data package (Ecological Footprint Data on 182 countries), click here.
Air Quality, Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD), Chevron Refinery, Flaring, Regional regulation, Violations of law

Chevron fined for air pollution at Richmond refinery

Repost from SFGate

Chevron fined for air pollution at Richmond refinery

By Kurtis Alexander, August 11, 2015 2:42 pm

Chevron has agreed to pay $146,000 in fines for spewing pollutants into the air at its refinery in Richmond, air quality regulators said Tuesday.

The penalty stems from 22 citations from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District mostly for discharging unhealthy levels of hydrogen sulfide and other harmful compounds through flaring, the process of burning off excess gas, common at industrial sites.

The refinery was also cited for excess carbon monoxide coming out of its furnace.

“Even though the incidents were minor and did not result in any significant impacts to people or the environment, we take these matters seriously, and have taken preventative measures to avoid similar situations from occurring in the future,” said Leah Casey, a spokeswoman for Chevron Corp., in an e-mail to The Chronicle.

The notices of violation were sent to Chevron between 2012 and 2014. The fines will support the air district’s enforcement work.

Bakken Crude, Crude By Rail, Derailment, Explosion, Federal Regulation (U.S.), Oil prices, Pipeline transport, Rail Safety

Bakken crude: Could pipelines replace the need for oil-by-rail?

Repost from Marcellus.com
[Editor: Significant quote by Rusty Braziel, analyst with RBN Energy: “By 2017 there should be enough pipelines to carry all North Dakota’s crude to market.”  See also “ND shipping only 47% of Bakken crude by train in June” – RS]

Bakken crude: Could pipelines replace the need for oil-by-rail?

By Zach Koppang, August 14, 2015
Image: Mary Schimke / Shale Plays Media
Image: Mary Schimke / Shale Plays Media

The transportation of Bakken crude is beginning to shift away from the railways and into pipelines as production levels off in the wake of last year’s price collapse and more oil and gas pipelines are brought online.

Rusty Braziel, analyst with RBN Energy, explained, “Since 2012 a combination of rail and pipeline has given Bakken producers ample crude takeaway capacity, but pipelines alone have not had sufficient capacity on their own.” Though, as production maintains a consistent rate, pipeline capacity is beginning to catch up. Braziel added, “By 2017 there should be enough pipelines to carry all North Dakota’s crude to market.”

Last week Continental Resources reported that it now ships over two-thirds of its Bakken crude by pipeline, reports Reuters. In the second quarter 2015, the company, North Dakota’s second-largest producer, pushed approximately 160,000 barrels of crude per day through Kinder Morgan owned pipelines. For comparison, it shipped nearly all of its oil by train in 2014. During a conference call, Continental CFO John Hart said, “Approximately 70 percent of our Bakken production is now delivered to market via pipeline.”

Director of RBN Energy Analytics Sandy Fielden said, “As soon as price differentials – especially between domestic benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and international benchmark Brent – narrowed, then barrels shifted back to pipelines to take advantage of their cheaper tariff rates. Yet significant crude volumes continued to be transported to market from North Dakota by rail because pipeline capacity could not handle the demand.” Recently, however, the planning and construction of new pipelines throughout the region has substantially increased overall shipping capacity, threatening the once booming business of BNSF Railway and others.

The trend is becoming more common as oil producing states, North Dakota included, begin to rely more heavily on pipelines rather than rail transport, which is vulnerable to weather, construction delays and bottlenecks. Transporting oil-by-rail has also become heavily scrutinized following a series of explosive, and sometimes deadly, oil train derailments. The most notable incident occurred in Lac-Megantic, Quebec, where a runaway oil train derailed and killed 47 people. The frequency and severity of derailments has led to increased scrutiny and regulation, much to the dismay of the rail industry.

As reported by Reuters, oil-by-rail shipments have decreased throughout the country by 13 percent in the past year, according to the latest American Association of Railroads data. Also indicative of the decreased interest in crude-by-rail shipments, and the far-reaching effects of the oil price decline, are the recent job cuts at one of the state’s largest rail transloading facilities.

However, Fielden explains, “Just because pipeline capacity is available doesn’t necessarily mean producers will prefer to use that capacity instead of rail.” Over 1 million barrels of oil per day continue to ride U.S. railways en route to refineries on the east and west coasts. Tesoro and BP, for example, opt to receive oil via rail due to the flexibility of the supply contracts when compared to pipeline shipments.

The RBN analysis reports that in theory, as new pipeline projects come online, all Bakken crude could be shipped to market via pipeline. Projects due to begin operating by the end of 2016 and throughout 2017 will expand takeaway capacity by 680,000 barrels per day. Fielden said, “The planning and buildout of a series of new pipelines out of North Dakota that (if they are all built) should increase capacity enough to provide space for all the barrels currently traveling to market from North Dakota by rail.”

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