I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Photo by Rick Z.
New Mexico and Texas have seen more people killed by oil and gas pipeline accidents since 2000 than any other states, concludes a new study of refinery and pipeline accidents and pollution released Thursday by the National Wildlife Federation.
New Mexico has had 58 significant pipeline accidents over the past decade, killing 15 and injuring 17 people, according to the report.
Texas also saw 15 pipeline accident-related deaths in that period, and 60 injuries. But Texas’s 15 deaths resulted from 523 significant pipeline accidents, compared to New Mexico’s 58 — indicating that New Mexico’s pipeline accidents are, on average, more lethal than those anywhere else in the U.S.
When it comes to the environmental and human costs of oil industry accidents, “major oil spills are really only a small part of the real story,” the study concludes.
From 2000 to 2009, the U.S. saw 2,554 significant oil and gas pipeline accidents, causing 161 deaths and 576 injuries, the report states.
New Mexico ranks as having the 10th worst pipeline safety record overall in the U.S., the report states. But in terms of lives lost, New Mexico ties Texas for first place.
The National Wildlife Federation study did not statistically control for the number of miles of pipelines in each state, in its ranking of states for pipeline safety.
From 2001 to 2007, offshore oil drilling operations had 356 spills, 476 fires, 302 injuries and 41 worker fatalities, the study found.
PRC levied record fine for PNM gas pipeline leak
The Public Regulation Commission (PRC) issued a record $371,000 fine against PNM for allowing a potentially explosive 2008 natural gas pipeline leak to persist unrepaired for two months beneath the intersection of Carlisle and Montgomery Blvds. in Albuquerque.
That leak was a near-miss situation that could have resulted in a catastrophic loss of life, individuals familiar with the leak have told The Independent.
“If somebody had dropped a lit cigarette, there would’ve been a crater,” PRC Pipeline Safety Bureau director Jason Montoya told The Independent last week.
The Independent has requested pipeline safety violation notifications from Montoya’s office.
The National Wildlife Federation study did not statistically control for the number of miles of pipelines in each state, in its ranking of states for pipeline safety.
Poor safety, record profits
The industry’s poor safety record cannot be attributed to the economic recession, the study notes.
“While most of the world was hit hard by the economic downturn, the top 10 petroleum refining companies in the world reported $2.8 trillion in revenue and $150 billion in profit during 2009,” the report states.
The American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association for the oil and gas industry, spent $10.9 million on lobbying in 2009 and 2010, the report states.
The study highlighted a 2000 natural gas pipeline leak that incinerated families camping southeast of Carlsbad, killing 12 including five children. The following year, a small gas pipeline leak in Santa Fe led to an explosion that leveled a business building after an employee lit a cigarette.
An explosion at New Mexico’s largest oil refinery, the Navajo refinery in Artesia, killed two workers in March but did not involve a pipeline.
