PARADIS, La. -- Opponents of the Bayou Bridge Pipeline are holding up the pipeline fire in St. Charles Parish as an example of the danger more pipelines could bring to Louisiana, but regulators say comparing the two is like comparing apples to oranges.
According to a report from our partners at The Advocate, the Paradise-Venice, or VP01, is really only like the Bayou Bridge "in the sense that it's a pipeline. That information came from Patrick Courreges, the Communications Director for the Department of Natural Resources. Courreges pointed out that the VP01 carries liquid natural gas, while the Bayou Bridge would carry crude oil.
Many of the concerns over crude oil have centered on whether it may leak into waterways. Liquid natural gas is transported in pressurized pipes and vaporizes into a gas when released, Courreges explained. The gas is highly volatile, much more than crude oil.
The Louisiana Bucket Brigade addressed those points in a statement.
"The oil industry and the elected officials they've bought off will have a thousand excuses about this accident," said Anne Rolfes, Founding Director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade. "They'll say that this is a natural gas pipeline, not oil. They'll say that new technology would have prevented it. But the fire and the explosion speak for itself. Pipelines are dangerous and we don't want more in Louisiana."
