pipeline

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has pleaded not guilty to charges in a new indictment that accuses the utility of lying to federal investigators looking into a fatal pipeline explosion in a San Francisco Bay Area neighborhood. Steve Bauer, an attorney for the company, entered the plea in court on Monday to all 28 counts in the indictment, including obstruction of justice.

Systemic problems led to the failure of a gas pipeline in San Bruno, California, and a subsequent explosion that killed eight people and destroyed 38 homes. The city's mayor has called for the ouster of key officials who negligently avoided fixing the problem at the behest of the energy industry they were supposed to regulate.

Recent polling has indicated strong support by the American public for approving construction of the Keystone XL Canadian tar sands export pipeline. Yet, this support is based on a series of falsehoods, spread by the very people who stand to benefit from the pipeline’s approval.

Coming just a week after Canada’s foreign minister traveled to Washington, D.C., and called on the Obama administration to make a decision on Keystone XL pipeline, the results of a new paper's analysis contradict the oil industry’s claims that the safety of pipelines can be ensured through existing measures. According to the Wall Street Journal, which looked at data on 251 spills that occurred on private property, the industry's pipeline monitoring equipment was the first to detect a leak in just 19.5 percent of incidents.

Alabama citizens fight back as Canadian oil companies attempt to turn the Mobile area into a tar sands mecca. Pipelines, oil storage facilities, and special train cars all pose serious environmental risks to the area.