Capitalist profits fueled San Bruno blast

Another deadly accident in the rapidly expanding and largely unregulated U.S. gas and oil industry has devastated a community.

A fire in San Bruno, Calif., on Sept. 9 killed at least seven people, injured more than 60 others, and destroyed or damaged dozens of homes over a 15-acre area in a residential neighborhood. This horrific fire resulted from the rupture of a natural gas line.

Prior to the blast, residents reported smelling gas in recent weeks, but Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the utility company that operates the 30-inch-diameter pipeline, denied that any of its crews had worked on the line. It should be pointed out, however, that PG&E has had 19 significant pipeline incidents since 2002.

According to experts, the 305,000 miles of onshore natural gas lines that span the U.S. routinely suffer breakdowns and failures. In 2008 alone, at least 365 people were killed and 1,553 injured from 44 significant gas pipeline accidents across the country. During the last two decades, more than 5,600 serious pipeline accidents have been reported.

The section of gas line that ruptured in this San Francisco suburb was ranked as high risk because it ran through a highly populated area.

Ironically, one of those killed in the inferno was Jacqueline Greig, a San Bruno resident and an analyst for the California Public Utilities Commission. She worked on a commission team that advocates for consumers and environmental protection pertaining to natural gas. Grieg had been reviewing PG&E’s plans to upgrade its natural gas lines.

Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit advocacy group set up after a 1969 explosion killed three people in Bellingham, Wash., said, “The industry always says that if you take care of pipelines, they’ll last forever. But what we see over and over again is companies not doing that, and corrosion and other factors are causing failures.” Weimer noted that once a high-pressure pipeline fails, anything can cause a deadly blast. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Sept. 11)

This catastrophic accident and others that have occurred over the years in both the gas and oil industries point up the inadequacy of government regulation of privately owned for-profit companies. First, there are not enough regulations to prevent accidents like this one. Second, the government does not enforce rules nor punish errant companies that flout health and safety concerns. (Another case in point is BP’s ravaging of the Gulf of Mexico and the government’s “do little, if anything,” approach.)

Under capitalism, the mad dash for profits always takes priority over protection of human lives and the environment. In fact, the government’s interest here is to protect corporate ownership and profits, no matter what, unless there is a mass struggle that forces the government to issue some protections. However, this does not get to the root of the problem.

What this disaster cries out for is socialized ownership of gas and oil resources and production. Unlike the current capitalist system, this would take the profit motive out of the picture. A national, regional or local people’s planning board comprised of environmentalists, urban planners, engineers, safety experts, workers and community members would figure out how to provide the people with the safest and most economical energy while guarding the well-being of human beings and the environment. That’s the way it should be.