Thread by @BarrelHuggers

Friendly advice for FreeportLNG: Don't mess with PHMSA. That approach did not work for Cheniere or for TETCO, and it won't work for you. Ultimately, it is bad for the energy industry.
#FreeportLNG #PHMSA #LNG #naturalgas #oil #energy

Here's an excerpt from yesterday's press release: "Freeport…identified a recovery plan for reinstatement of partial operations…" Sounds like corporate PR at its finest: control the narrative.

What is the end game here? Make PHMSA look like a slow, dysfunctional government agency that is "against business" if and when they don't OK the company's restart timeline?

FreeportLNG had filed 56 incidents with the TCEQ in the 12 months prior to the June 8, 2022 explosion - maybe, just maybe, there really is quite a bit of work to do before that facility is allowed to return to service.

PHMSA is staffed with competent people of integrity. Anyone who has ever dealt with them or read one of their reports knows this - they take their job seriously and are good at it. They also see what's going on and include a detailed timeline of events in filings now.

PHMSA's mission is "to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to our daily lives." As a private citizen, I want PHMSA to do a good job.

The oil and gas industry wants them to be effective - PHMSA is an agency that gives credibility to the industry and, in a sense, shields them against non-sense attacks targeting pipelines and other critical energy infrastructure.

Thinking too small? Is this bigger than one firm? OK, let's think big then: can lobbyists ultimately squeeze funding out of PHMSA, suffocate the agency and turn it into a "slow, dysfunctional government agency"?

That is possible and would erode confidence at PHMSA, likely drive its core staff away, and slowly unravel another institution - yet another step towards a Putinesque world where nothing is true and everything is possible. Let's not go down that road. Please.

Oh, and here is a book recommendation:
"Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia" by Peter Pomerantsev

publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/peter-p…