The East Coast got a taste of its dependence on energy pipelines last week, but unfortunately residents may not have learned the right lesson from the recent gasoline spill.
A 53-year-old pipeline broke Sept. 9 and spilled more than 252,000 gallons of gasoline near Helena, Ala. The Colonial Pipeline Co. shut it down and replaced a 500-foot underground section, but in the nearly two weeks that took, the southeast United States suffered from gasoline shortages.
Prices in Atlanta jumped from $2.16 to $2.51 in just one week, as supply tightened, because there is only one pipeline that delivers gasoline from refineries on the Gulf Coast to that part of the country. And its getting old.
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Why is a 53-year-old underground pipeline the only way to deliver gasoline? Because locals didn't want a new one that Houston-based Kinder Morgan planned to build this year.
The opposition came from landowners in Georgia, a deeply Republican state, not from some long-haired environmentalists. They turned up the heat so high that Republican Gov. Nathan Deal vowed to fight the pipeline in court, if necessary.
It wasn't. Kinder Morgan shut it down when conservative lawmakers opposed it.
There is little more infuriating for a pipeline executive or a an oil and gas worker than to see demonstrators drive up in their cars to launch a protest. Or to see a homeowner climb into his Ford F-350 Super-Duty pickup after testifying to lawmakers about why a pipeline shouldn't go through his land.
Where do they think fuel comes from? How do they think it reached the pump?
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As I've said many times during the debate over the Keystone XL, moving liquid through pipe is the safest way to move energy across the country. It's safer than both trucks and trains, and while not perfect, it presents a lower risk to the environment.
But not if the pipeline is getting old. Everything wears out over time and needs to be replaced, including pipelines.
Very few Americans are ready to give up their motor vehicles anytime soon. Even most environmentalists aren't willing to turn in their 10-year-old Subarus for all-electric cars quite yet. So we need to a safe way to deliver liquid transportation fuels to our neighborhoods.
Activists will claim the Colonial Pipeline spill is proof that we shouldn't build new pipelines. The truth is that the Colonial spill is proof why we need to build new ones.
