Gross neglect all the way around

In August 2006, British Petroleum shut down operations of the Alaska Pipeline due to numerous system failures and physical deterioration of the pipe itself. This event did not come as a surprise. Documentation between BP and the State of Alaska and Federal EPA authorities, as well as whistle blowers from inside BP, can be exhaustively viewed at www.alaskaforum.org.

The following is a partial excerpt from a Rueters story on Feb 22. Be certain that this "news brief" is only a small window into the gross neglect and disrepair that the nation's utilities and energy infastructure have been subjected to at the profit of holding companies et al.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday announced it has placed the biggest nuclear power plant in the United States, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station in Arizona, under a tighter watch because of a safety violation.
"Following testing failures on July 25 and September 22, an NRC special inspection identified problems in an electrical relay that rendered the emergency diesel generator nonfunctional for approximately 18 days during 2006," the NRC said.
McDonald said APS is "committed to returning Palo Verde to its previous level of excellence. Our job is to safely generate electricity and improve performance at the plant and to work with the regulators."
In 2004, the NRC found that a pipe used to flood reactors with water in case of an emergency had been dry for years.