Shit Happens
No one could have predicted/nothing could be done/regulation is always bad/hoocoodanode/these things just happen:
People miles away reported hearing a ‘’blowtorch’’ sound and could see a glow in the sky from a gas pipeline explosion that shook residents in eastern Ohio, an official said Friday.‘’From 20 to 25 miles away they could hear a cracking,’’ said Jim Hoppel, president of the board of commissioners governing Columbiana County. ‘’Some people said it was like a blowtorch.’’
The Thursday night explosion and fire happened a day after a house explosion in neighboring Pennsylvania took the lives of five residents and destroyed several homes in Allentown.
A dispatcher for the county sheriff’s office said officials had no reports of injury in the blast near Hanoverton. She said there was no mandatory evacuation but those in the village of about 400 people and surrounding towns who wanted to leave their homes could find shelter at a school and at the Salineville Fire Department.
Drill, baby, drill. And of course there is no need for a miniscule tax increase to inspect these things. The free market will sort it out! Regulators just slow down progress! People will speak with their wallets and buy other natural gas, and the market will punish those responsible! Have faith in the invisible hand!
February 12, 2011 6:20 pm
Posted in: Assholes, Decline and Fall, Free Markets Solve Everything, Glibertarianism
44 Comments
44 Responses
Litlebritdifrnt - February 12, 2011 | 6:28 pm · Link
And of course the GOP plan is to gut the EPA. Hoocoodanode indeed.
morzer - February 12, 2011 | 6:29 pm · Link
Time to drill where Sarah Palin can see it from her house.
WyldPirate - February 12, 2011 | 6:36 pm · Link
As it does what—inserts itself up our ass in order to disembowel us after it has taken everything including our dreams?
gbear - February 12, 2011 | 6:36 pm · Link
Except, you know, cut into our profits.
inkadu - February 12, 2011 | 6:38 pm · Link
See, the spokesperson for the company said they did everything they could AND they are going to do their own mandatory inspection. What more do you want from those poor people? If they couldn’t make money piping gas, they’d have to join Team Themis and harass the children of ThinkProgress volunteers just to make ends meet; plus they’d be heating their homes with oil.
It’s a cruel, cruel market place.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine - February 12, 2011 | 6:39 pm · Link
John – If it was part of the Tennesee Gas Pipeline as the link indicates, it is not related to the increased drilling infrastructure in the Northeast. Tennessee Gas is a long haul pipeline that moves natural gas from the Gulf Coast to the Northeast population centers. It is also FERC regulated. This pipe has been in operation for decades and it not directly related to the local issues in your other link.
WarMunchkin - February 12, 2011 | 6:39 pm · Link
Some things in life need to be mysterious. Sometimes you just need to keep on walking. QED.
licensed to kill time - February 12, 2011 | 6:45 pm · Link
oops. swear did not dbl submit.
licensed to kill time - February 12, 2011 | 6:45 pm · Link
We don’t need no regulation
We don’t need no market control
No dark socklism in the gummint
Gummint leave our pipes alone
Hey! Gummint! Leave our pipes alone!
All in all it’s just a ‘nother hole in the ground.
300baud - February 12, 2011 | 6:46 pm · Link
This argument has puzzled me for a long time. Is it religious faith? Or does it reflect false pride, an inability to admit they don’t make the perfect, all-seeing decisions needed to make this theory workable?
The Dangerman - February 12, 2011 | 6:49 pm · Link
@licensed to kill time:
By Roger(ing the) Waters and David Drillmore, right?
robertdsc-PowerBook - February 12, 2011 | 6:50 pm · Link
Tax cuts will cure any damage.
Delia - February 12, 2011 | 6:51 pm · Link
@300baud:
Yes. See the Ayn Rand cult discussed earlier today. I believe there’s a stunning new movie being made about it.
licensed to kill time - February 12, 2011 | 6:51 pm · Link
@The Dangerman: Heh, indeedy! Good one.
flounder - February 12, 2011 | 6:52 pm · Link
I would guess that if there truly was an invisible hand, it would weigh the costs of repairing a pipeline servicing a “village” of only 400 people, decide there’s no money to be made in it, and let the village go Galt.
scav - February 12, 2011 | 6:53 pm · Link
Speaking of things blowing up, there’s the Spokane Valley Great Balls o’ Fire
Villago Delenda Est - February 12, 2011 | 6:55 pm · Link
Fixed for accuracy.
Tom Hilton - February 12, 2011 | 6:57 pm · Link
All too deja vuey for us in the Bay Area; we had one of those explosions late last year. And yeah, PG&E wasn’t doing adequate pipe inspections or keeping adequate records, and was spiking the pressure periodically, and the PUC was letting them get away with it.
Clearly, if it weren’t for regulatory overreach it never would have happened.
sharl - February 12, 2011 | 6:58 pm · Link
From Weigel, Mitch Daniels’ energy policy, as summarized at the latest CPAC shindig:
A lot of the Broderish media crowd luv this guy. If they decide to push his candidacy, I wonder if they will address his more problematic positi-... oh wait, I don’t actually wonder about that at all.
gypsy howell - February 12, 2011 | 7:00 pm · Link
Hey assholes! Keep voting for republicans and blue dog democrats! And then watch your houses blow up!
morzer - February 12, 2011 | 7:02 pm · Link
@sharl:
A fracked-up policy for a fracked-up candidate.
Arlene - February 12, 2011 | 7:02 pm · Link
I live 12 blocks from the explosion in Allentown. The devastation is unbelievable. It looks like an entire city block was bombed. The cause of the explosion has not been stated as yet. Of course, when it comes to taxing marcellus shale every other state does but not PA. Our new governor Tom Corbett received large contributions from the marcellus shale producers for his campaign. He’s a Republican of course.
gbear - February 12, 2011 | 7:03 pm · Link
@scav:
I like the first comment:
“Banjos. I hear banjos”
Warren Terra - February 12, 2011 | 7:09 pm · Link
@licensed to kill time:
This was good, but I fear should people start to filk all the Balloon Juice threads.
Chris - February 12, 2011 | 7:11 pm · Link
Blog post title “sh*t happens” What ad automatically turns up? Charmin. Now thats the invisible hand of teh Gizoogle.
Magatha - February 12, 2011 | 7:13 pm · Link
@Tom Hilton: Yup, Tom, and there’s nothing we can do to protect ourselves, is there? If PG&E doesn’t even know what kind of pipes it has, and where it has them (much less having a true incentive to operate them properly), we’re just not going to know until the next blast. You can’t even do stuff like putting an earthquake kit together, or making sure heavy stuff is bolted down, or keeping up to date on weather forecasts so you can watch for tornadoes and hurricanes and then run like hell. Even if we funded and staffed fully authorized agencies first thing next Monday morning, we are so far behind. This is not something that will get bad next year or sometime soon; the pipes are blowing up and the bridges are collapsing right the hell now.
When I was a kid, there was a railroad track at the end of our street, and we used to race across the empty field whenever we heard a train coming. We’d get so close because it was exciting, and then we’d wave at the caboose man. I used to worry about how close we got, but then I decided that it couldn’t really be dangerous, because if it were dangerous, they wouldn’t allow us to get so close. I thought there was a they who cared. Silly child.
Benjamin Cisco - February 12, 2011 | 7:14 pm · Link
@Villago Delenda Est:
The Sisko is not amused. I, on the other hand…
Svensker - February 12, 2011 | 7:15 pm · Link
Have humans always been this screwed up? I don’t remember feeling like crying every day back in the day, but maybe I just wasn’t paying attention.
Mark S. - February 12, 2011 | 7:19 pm · Link
@Delia:
Yeah, Ayn goes a little bit further than most libertarians who merely argue that laissez-faire is the most efficient system:
I guess this makes sense, if man’s rational nature can be summed up as “I’ve Got Mine, Fuck You,” and nothing else.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine - February 12, 2011 | 7:20 pm · Link
@Arlene: What’s the link between taxing (or not taxing) the activity in the Marcellus and this explosion?
kdaug - February 12, 2011 | 7:26 pm · Link
Sometimes that invisible hand curls up into a fist and beats you to death.
Fickle things, those invisible hands.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine - February 12, 2011 | 7:28 pm · Link
@kdaug: Sometimes it fondles you too!
PurpleGirl - February 12, 2011 | 7:29 pm · Link
@scav: Does anyone know if the Darwin Awards are still being done? This guy would definitely be in the running for one.
DonkeyKong - February 12, 2011 | 7:29 pm · Link
Don’t think of it as a blown gasline, think of it as a money shot of freedom!
(Cue stock footage of a train going trough a tunnel, oil rig pumping up and down, and Jonah Goldberg belching after too many pigs in a blanket from an all you can eat spread on one of those National Review cruises.)
Omnes Omnibus - February 12, 2011 | 7:32 pm · Link
@Mark S.:Whatever happened to the concept of enlightened self-interest? Is it bound and gagged in someone’s basement somewhere, just waiting and hoping for the sweet, merciful release of death?
gnomedad - February 12, 2011 | 7:32 pm · Link
@Villago Delenda Est:
You cannot appreciate Atlas Shrugged until you’ve read it in the original Ferengi.
PurpleGirl - February 12, 2011 | 7:34 pm · Link
@gnomedad: Very good. LOL.
beergoggles - February 12, 2011 | 7:46 pm · Link
@gnomedad: You, sir, win the internet!
daize - February 12, 2011 | 7:46 pm · Link
@gnomedad: oh, very good!
Delia - February 12, 2011 | 8:27 pm · Link
@morzer:
This will probably be a good slogan for whoever the goopers nominate in 2012.
Arlene - February 12, 2011 | 9:41 pm · Link
Gordon, there’s no connection between the explosion and the taxing of marcellus shale. I just made note of Corbett’s position because it’s the classic Republican line. The corporations and the rich are taxed very little while the middle class is forced to make all the sacrifices. Plus, in Pennsylvania, our legislators take very good care of themselves. They have the best medical insurance and have it for life. Just recently, a retired legislator became head of some commission for $120,000 a year on top of his very generous pension. Double dipping. It never ends.
James E Powell - February 12, 2011 | 10:26 pm · Link
Our new governor Tom Corbett received large contributions from the marcellus shale producers for his campaign.
More important, your new governor received the votes of Pennsylvanians who apparently believe that the solution to all our problems is to let the Republicans run everything.
Shithead #3 - formerly Gen Stuck - February 12, 2011 | 10:53 pm · Link
So do shitheads. sorry, that was just too juicy to pass up.
trollhattan - February 13, 2011 | 3:14 am · Link
They otta call in PG&E for a consult and guidance. They’re the go-to folks for safety—investor-owned utility category.
Shredding historical documents faster than the PUC can subpoena them. “Wot, welded pipes where our records said seamless? Unpossible!”