BP Makes Hunter Queasy about Pipelines

Last year, MDL publisher Jon Hunter gave thanks for the TransCanada Keystone pipelines. In light of the BP oil disaster, our man Hunter is now sounding a more cautious tone:

In general, we think the oil pipelines are good projects. We've generally believed the pipeline operators when they say they have sensing equipment and mitigation procedures in place in case something goes wrong.

But when our trust was broken for the offshore drilling containment measures, we now feel we need to question the pipeline operators, too.

There are three main issues to be addressed: equipment, procedures and resources [Jon Hunter, "Gulf Oil Spill Creates Worries for S.D. Pipelines," Madison Daily Leader, 2010.06.02].

Hunter expresses the hope that regulators and others will work with pipeline owners to make sure any leaks are addressed quickly and effectively.

I wonder what Senator Russell Olson would have thought of such advice last winter when he voted to kill the pipeline tax that would have created an environmental fund to address pipeline accidents, or when he voted to give TransCanada a tax break eight times larger than the amount he shorted K-12 education in the state budget.