California blackouts could affect Arizona gas pipelines

Associated Press Jan. 23, 2001 12:00:00

MESA - State officials are keeping a watchful eye on the California blackouts, hoping they won't cause interruptions in a major West Coast pipeline that pumps in a large portion of Arizona's gasoline and jet fuel.

The pipe's flow from California to Arizona was interrupted several times last week because of the blackouts that cut power at various intervals.

Gov. Jane Hull planned to meet with her staff, which met Monday with gas company and state officials.

It's "still too early to tell," how Arizona could be affected if the pipeline was shut down, said Hull spokeswoman Francie Noyes. "They do not anticipate a problem, but again this is a very volatile situation."

Gasoline companies originally feared shortages in Arizona as early as this week.

But the California Public Utilities Commission told the pipeline's owner, Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, that it can operate the pipeline for up to seven days without fear of power interruption.

Company spokesman Larry Pierce said lines ran at maximum capacity over the weekend to make up for overdue deliveries from last week's interruptions.

Hull and other Western governors plan to meet Feb. 2 in Portland, Ore., to discuss the energy issue.

California is important to the whole nation's economy and a major trading partner of Arizona, Noyes said.

"If something really devastating happened with the California economy, it would spill over here," she said. "The governor's staff is doing a lot of talking on this issue. We want to make sure we are on top of this issue and we know what is going on."

http://www.arizonarepublic.com/arizona/articles/0123az-blackoutsON.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), January 23, 2001

Answers

Martin- Thank you for this- first time I read it. No shortages here in AZ yet, but good to know ahead of time that there might be a problem.

-- Swissrose (cellier@azstarnet.com), January 24, 2001.