Sections of steel pipe of the Mountain Valley Pipeline lie in the sun on wooden blocks on August 31, 2022 in Bent Mountain, Virginia.

 (Photo: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

A Dangerous Pipeline and Why Pete Buttigieg Would Be a Bad Choice for VP

Kamala Harris needs to lead the country in addressing this biggest of all problems: our climate crisis and the dominance of the fossil fuel industry in our politics and policies.

President Joe Biden lost a lot of support, especially among young voters and climate voters, when he approved the foolish Willow Project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) was equally unpopular with those groups but they rightfully placed most of the blame for that project on Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V).

What a lot of people, including reporters, don’t realize is that Pete Buttigieg, as Secretary of Transportation, had (and still has) the power to stop MVP. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) reports to Buttigieg and PHMSA, as its name implies, has the authority and responsibility to ensure the pipelines are built and operated safely. But the MVP was not built—nor is it operating—safely. That is not an opinion pulled out of thin air by a climate activist. Rather it is the conclusion of a study done by TC Energy (formerly TransCanada), the company that wanted to build the Keystone XL Pipeline (KXL). That study was the subject of an article (pg 16) in the Jan/Feb 2020 issue of Corrosion Management, a journal of the Institute of Corrosion.

This topic has been written about extensively for over a year. If reporters and other readers want to understand the particulars they can find them here. The long and short of it is that the TC Energy/KXL study proved that MVP’s corrosion-proof coating is “no longer fit for purpose.” That’s a pretty damning indictment, especially given the enormous diameter (42 inches) of MVP and the extremely high pressure it will be operating under. It’s particularly scary for all those who live within MVP’s blast zone.

MVP is made of thick steel. It isn’t going to corrode extensively tomorrow or anytime right away. But pipelines like MVP are built with the intention that they will operate for many, many decades, which is why legally they MUST have an adequate corrosion-proof coating. Otherwise they will corrode prematurely which could lead to a massive explosion. Delaney Tercero was 3 when a 10 inch gas pipeline exploded near her home because defective coating allowed the pipe to corrode. She died 2 days later in a hospital burn unit. Again, MVP is 42 inches.

The National Association of Pipe Coating Applicators (NAPCA) recommends that the pipe coating that was applied to MVP pipe should not be exposed to the harmful rays of the sun for more than 6 months. MVP pipe sat out in the sun for 6-7 years. A KXL pipeline manager, speaking at an oil and gas forum in Canada, said that when the coating has deteriorated to such a degree it either needs to be replaced or sent back to the factory for stripping, cleaning and recoating. He said this is a problem that can’t be remedied in the field. MVP pipe was neither replaced nor properly recoated. It was just quickly buried and covered up, as if that would make the problem go away.

Pete Buttigieg is obviously a very smart guy. He’s articulate, does his homework and has a knack for making members of Congress look ridiculous when they try to question him. If anyone can explain why the KXL coating study doesn’t apply to MVP, it would be Secretary Buttigieg. But neither he nor PHMSA nor MVP nor anyone else has ever offered that explanation. Buttigieg seems to pop up everywhere these days but he hasn’t met with the people who live next to MVP and been willing to address their fears about the defective pipe coating. And the reason he hasn’t is because he can’t explain away the KXL study’s obvious relevance to MVP which leaves him unable to defend PHMSA’s decision to allow MVP to operate.

And this problem isn’t limited to MVP. Pipeline giant, Williams, has just built pipelines in Louisiana and Pennsylvania by using old pipe intended for the now-dead Constitution Pipeline in NY. That pipe has been sitting out in the sun for over a decade. Williams has now buried it right next to houses, schools, playgrounds, ball parks, through golf courses and under interstate highways.

Essentially, despite all their posturing, Pete Buttigieg and PHMSA are just part of the Good Ol’ Boy network that oversees much of our country’s energy regulatory system which remains heavily controlled by the fossil fuel industry. Up and down the chain of command people go along to get along, as pointed out in this article that Bill McKibben called landmark by Mike Soraghan of Politico’s E&E News. That system has resulted in America being the largest oil and gas producer ever, which is deplorable given the scientific consensus regarding climate change. It is why we are so far behind in achieving our climate goals.

Kamala Harris needs to lead the country in addressing this biggest of all problems. She needs to separate herself from the Good Ol’ Boy network. She should start by picking someone other than Pete Buttigieg to be her VP.

COMMON DREAMS