If you haven’t already, be sure to check out this very interesting item from the Hattiesburg (Miss.) American. Dan Froomkin got the ball rolling with it yesterday, and it’s been making the rounds ever since, but the questions the article raises are in need of answers.
Shortly after Hurricane Katrina roared through South Mississippi knocking out electricity and communication systems, the White House ordered power restored to a pipeline that sends fuel to the Northeast.
That order – to restart two power substations in Collins that serve Colonial Pipeline Co. – delayed efforts by at least 24 hours to restore power to two rural hospitals and a number of water systems in the Pine Belt.
At first blush, the idea that the White House saw the protection of a fuel pipeline to much of the country as a national emergency makes some sense. But the circumstances here, at a minimum, are enough to raise some eyebrows.
Dan Jordan, manager of Southern Pines Electric Power Association, said Vice President Dick Cheney’s office called and left voice mails twice shortly after the storm struck, saying the Collins substations needed power restored immediately.
Jordan dated the first call the night of Aug. 30 and the second call the morning of Aug. 31. Southern Pines supplies electricity to the substation that powers the Colonial pipeline.
Mississippi Public Service Commissioner Mike Callahan said the U.S. Department of Energy called him on Aug. 31. Callahan said department officials said opening the fuel line was a national priority.
Between Aug. 29 and Aug. 31, the federal response to Katrina was, in a word, pathetic. Neither the president nor the vice president were even back from their vacations at that point, and yet, Cheney’s office managed to make immediate demands about protecting and securing this pipeline.
Local officials did what they were told and did an amazing job. Under a White House directive, they pulled workers off of other emergency projects and got the fuel pipelines working, even though it meant keeping some local hospitals without power in the aftermath of the devastation.
It seems odd.
The White House’s response to questions regarding this directive, I assumed, would be fairly direct: tens of millions of people depend on those pipelines along the eastern coast, so officials had to make this a top priority, even at the cost of local hospitals dealing with a crisis with no power. Except, that isn’t the White House response — because they refuse to respond at all.
Cheney’s office referred calls about the pipeline to the Department of Homeland Security. Calls there were referred to Kirk Whitworth, who would not take a telephone message and required questions in the form of an e-mail.
Susan Castiglione, senior manager of corporate and public affairs with Colonial Pipeline, did not return phone calls.
Their silence notwithstanding, this story raises questions that deserve answers. I’m not saying that there’s obvious wrongdoing here, but a White House explanation is warranted for why it leapt into action on just this project the week of the storm.