Don’t Kill Keystone XL. Regulate It., TWO years ago, I spent a month watching engineers inspect the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, one of the world’s biggest, most remote and most complicated pipelines. The endeavor entailed sending a five-ton “smart pig” — a rust-detecting robot — 800 miles across the length of Alaska, like a spitball in a giant straw, as it hunted for signs of metal loss.
Federal law mandates such inspections on all interstate pipelines every five years, but the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the operator of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, inspects its pipeline nearly twice as often. The $2 million pig was capable of scanning the pipe inch by inch, and the company wanted data on every one of the pipeline’s seven billion square inches.Read More
Federal law mandates such inspections on all interstate pipelines every five years, but the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, the operator of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, inspects its pipeline nearly twice as often. The $2 million pig was capable of scanning the pipe inch by inch, and the company wanted data on every one of the pipeline’s seven billion square inches.Read More
