December 25, 2024
Federal Briefs
Colonial Pipeline Restarts Gasoline Shipments
This week's FERC and federal briefs include news on the NRC, Obama Administration and other agencies.

Six days after an explosion in Alabama shut it down, Line 1 of the Colonial Pipeline began shipping gasoline from Houston to New Jersey again on Sunday morning.

Colonial said it would take three days for the gas to arrive at the Linden, N.J., terminal. The explosion and ensuing fire, near Helena, Ala., was the result of a backhoe punching a hole in the pipeline, sending 200 feet of fire into the air, killing one worker and injuring five others.

The pipeline’s shutdown disrupted the wholesale gasoline market and raised retail prices in the Southeast.

More: Reuters

Obama: US Considering Ways To Reroute Dakota Access

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is considering ways to reroute the controversial Dakota Access pipeline so that it doesn’t intrude upon Native American cultural sites, President Obama said last week.

“I think as a general rule, my view is that there is a way for us to accommodate sacred lands of Native Americans, and I think right now the Army Corps is examining ways to reroute this pipeline,” Obama said in an interview with news organization Now This.

But that was news to pipeline constructor Energy Transfer Partners, spokeswoman Vicki Granado said. “We are not aware that any consideration is being given to a reroute, and we remain confident we will receive our easement in a timely fashion,” she said.

More: Dallas Business Journal

NRC Approves Plant Expansion While FP&L Cleans Up Leak

As Florida Power & Light works to clean up leaking cooling canals at its Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant, federal regulators have partly cleared the way for the plant to build two new reactors.

Following a seven-year environmental study, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission found the use of cooling towers to operate the new reactors — located on the shores of Biscayne Bay between two national parks — would not damage the already fragile ecosystem.

Over the years, the plant’s aging cooling canals sent an underground plume of saltwater miles inland, threatening drinking water supplies, and leaked tainted water into the bay. FP&L is conducting a massive cleanup.

More: Miami Herald

FERC & FederalPublic Policy

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