BREAKING: Large Explosion and Fire at Exxon Mobil refinery in Torrance, California - Ash Falling

MisterSpock:

www.thestreet.com...Not implying anything, just found it interesting?

That is too much of a coincidence, and has to be considered very suspicious indeed. I wouldn't be surprised if Exon has become the subject of a reprisal by not playing ball with other energy companies. Did Buffet receive some 'insider' warning and remove $3.7 billion worth of stock...because that is what it looks like?

This has got to be sabotage? The ash is the concrete and stone pulverised by the explosion, which will probably have destroyed any evidence of foul play. I think it is time authorities went all medieval on Buffet and found out the truth. He didn't wake up this morning and decide to remove that much value of stock because Exon was doing bad, it was doing good, against the grain, so I cannot accept that Buffet would remove that much stock without a damn good reason from a company that was doing so well.

Not a word on CNN. Budget cuts have gutted their west coast operations. They'll finally catch up to this story later today and broadcast as if it's happening "live".. with lots of "Breaking News!" banners filling the screen.

a reply to: TinfoilTP

It is well known the "Green" fundies want gas at the pump to be $10,

Really... Would have though hydrogen or electric car pumps to be a better alternative.. In Japan electric car pumps now out number gas..


purp..

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: TinfoilTP

It is well known the "Green" fundies want gas at the pump to be $10,

Really... Would have though hydrogen or electric car pumps to be a better alternative.. In Japan electric car pumps now out number gas..


purp..

When would these "Green" solutions trickle down to the masses of poor and lower middle class to be in numbers and low cost to be viable? If only a handful of well to do greeners are running around in them, they are not putting a dent in the environmental impact. Besides, where do you think the electric recharging stations get their power from? Instead of auto exhaust pipes they are all consolidated into giant smokestacks at fossil fuel burning power stations.
Out of sight out of mind is all that solution is.

a reply to: carewemust

There is a video on CNN covering it, but they don't say much.

Sure did look like one BIG boom though.

originally posted by: Darkblade71
a reply to: carewemust

There is a video on CNN covering it, but they don't say much.

Sure did look like one BIG boom though.

OK. Thanks DarkBlade. My TV is tuned to CNN, but I must have been on the phone or something.
cwm

a reply to: TinfoilTP

where do you think the electric recharging stations get their power from? Instead of auto exhaust pipes they are all consolidated into giant smokestacks at fossil fuel burning power stations

If a car runs of petrochemicals it runs on pertrochemical. If it runs on electricity the source of the energy is choosable. I live in Scotland here 70% of the energy production comes from green energy sources mainly wind and hydro. Look at Germany the entire country will be run on clean energy soon.

So in effect no they are not all consolidated into giant smokestakes..

we have choices..

purp..

originally posted by: TinfoilTP
How many operational refineries are running in the US? Doesn't matter California has plenty.

There are 5 other refineries in California alone that are equal or larger in capacity. California has 17 total.

For the doom pron of oh no gas will go up angle, well that doesn't seem to have any basis in reality looking at the number of refineries.

Source

Will be interesting to know what caused it or if it is "too nuanced" for us normal citizens to understand. (reference specific to the liberal idealogical expression of the day)

You clearly do not watch as oil goes up 2 per barrel and the price at the pump goes up 10% the next day.

They use ANYTHING to load up the prices, everything is loaded so they profit everytime it moves up, down, or sideways

i hope the ash-blanket doesn't carry anything harmful if ingested or inhaled (or through skin contact).

Mmmmmmmmmm

Well there is reasonable belief of technical failures, obviously...but.

It seems the beaumont refinery had issues recently too, and is apparently facing lawsuits for benzene exposure...
beaumont

Benzene
Oh, and check it, a full color pdf history of the blasted refinery...

pdf Torrance refinery

This has an interesting section about all the work they've done to limit emissions.

Oh and willing to bet Buffett pulled cause of Lockheeds announcement.

originally posted by: ketsuko
We haven't had a new refinery built in the US since the '70s. It makes sense that these facilities are getting creaky old and dangerous. I hope no one was seriously hurt.

Any refinery is a time bomb at any time, I mean your not playing with matches here.
I suspect all the ash is from the Coker tower or towers, if that is where its from it would mean that plant is out of business for a long long time.
It sure does look bad though, just to add we live in a city with half a dozen world scale refinery's just a fact and we are not proud of this.

Our hopes and prayers to the employees and their families, its got to be very tense there right now.
Regards, Iwinder & YogaGinns (YG works at a EXXON refinery here)

Whoa. .. That looks terrible I wonder what caused it , and if there are casualties I hope not..

a reply to: ketsuko "We haven't had a new refinery built in the US since the '70s." is a very false statement. There have been several especially in the last 10 yrs. The reason this falsehood persists still confuses me.

originally posted by: RoScoLaz4
i hope the ash-blanket doesn't carry anything harmful if ingested or inhaled (or through skin contact).

My apologies ---

LOL - it's a refinery - nothing toxic about the materials used in building it, or the materials used in refining. LOL. It's toxic as all get out.

A house fire is toxic.

Is ANYONE surprised by this? You had to KNOW TPTB were going to do something to drive up gas prices, even to the extent of killing people!

a reply to: CT_Flyboy

There are no reports of casualties and the impact on gasoline prices will be negligible outisde of California.

originally posted by: purplemer
a reply to: TinfoilTP

where do you think the electric recharging stations get their power from? Instead of auto exhaust pipes they are all consolidated into giant smokestacks at fossil fuel burning power stations

If a car runs of petrochemicals it runs on pertrochemical. If it runs on electricity the source of the energy is choosable. I live in Scotland here 70% of the energy production comes from green energy sources mainly wind and hydro. Look at Germany the entire country will be run on clean energy soon.

So in effect no they are not all consolidated into giant smokestakes..

we have choices..

purp..

How much more energy would Scotland need to generate if all of you suddenly started driving electric cars tomorrow? That's a lot of volts.

And in Japan ... those electric cars are or were running off of Fukushima.

Yeah, it happens every once in a while. This one didn't wake me up.

Years ago, same area, driving down 405 there was an explosion that pushed my car across 4 lanes.

El Segundo blows their top every once in a while too. There's still a lot of oil wells above La Tijera. Not sure if they're still pumping.

Every area seems to have their thing.

originally posted by: onequestion
a reply to: Phatdamage

well someones going to get an insurance payout from the damage im sure of it but i bet money on it that they make more money in production then they ever could from insurance.

You'd be surprised. I worked for a CA oil refiner and marketer with a refinery in Long Beach. Depending on the way prices and margins are going, sometimes you make more when the refinery is down from the loss of business insurance. My company's refinery had two incidents in a year (a fallen crane & fire at an asphalt holding tank). Since loss of business insurance was based on the margin from the previous year, the company profited quite a bit by being down. I would think it would be the same with this - higher prices at this time last year vs. lower prices now.

originally posted by: NightFlight
Well, there goes the "low" fuel prices we had enjoyed the last few weeks. Hopefully it was a pressure relief that blew and flamed up - something that won't be hard to fix and didn't harm anyone.

The price as already going back up in my area. But seems it'll go up even higher now.

Looks like that plant won't be working for a good long time, for what I could see from the pictures. It'll be months just to clear up the red tape from inspections and clean up work.