Liquefied Natural Gas, anyone? Think it can't happen here? Think again...Sure it can. All we need is a liquefied natural gas terminal and pipeline. Picture this explosion on the Columbia River, or Coos Bay...A portion of a natural gas plant east of Houston is still burning 24 hours after a pipeline exploded, several hours after a pipeline exploded. One maintenance contractor is missing. The Mont Belvieu installation is a “fractionation facility," which separates natural gas liquids into different components that are put into storage or pipelines. The catastrophe’s owner, Enterprise Products, says nothing toxic is burning and the company intends to let the fire burn itself out rather than fight the fire. Texas environmental regulators have cited the plant 48 times during the past five years for various permit violations. And yet it was not considered a major danger…until yesterday, of course.www.stopspewingcarbon.com www.nobiomassburning.org biomess.us/
The federal government is protecting private industry? Seems so. After breaking down doors with guns drawn, the FBI launched another round of multi-state raids - this time on Anonymous cyber-activists. What happens next is a federal grand jury in San Jose, California, will begin reviewing evidence tomorrow that includes computers and mobile phones seized from suspected leaders as prosecutors probe the coordinated so-called denial-of-service attacks in December, according to a federal subpoena and the spokesman, Barrett Brown. Anonymous directed activists to target payment processors MasterCard Inc., Visa Inc., EBay Inc.’s PayPal, and U.K.-based Moneybookers.com in public chat rooms. Makes a curious mind wonder why the Feds also hired the cyber-security outfit, HBGary Federal to go after Anonymous. Anonymous responded by taking HBGary down. www.nlg.org, www.justiceonline.org/
- KBOO