Hi all,

I want to thank all of you who have sent me the kind notes encouraging me to start blogging again and inquiring about why I have stopped. Many people seem to believe I quit blogging because of the election results, or because the new more conservative County Council has depressed me so much I just don’t see the point anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The reality is I have just been too busy. I like doing the blog to let people know in more detail what is going on with the County Council, but it is really a luxury that had to be set aside while I attended to necessities.

As you probably know the County Council is just a part time job that doesn’t pay very much, so I have another job to pay the bills. In my full time position as director of the national Pipeline Safety Trust I work more than full time, and because of a number of high profile pipeline disasters in the last few months I have been extremely busy, which is why the blog stopped since September.

Over the summer the Pipeline Safety Trust testified to Congress six times. Then in August a pipeline failed and dumped nearly a million gallons of crude oil into a river in Michigan. About a month later a natural gas pipeline near San Francisco exploded killing eight people, totally destroying 38 homes and damaging a good part of the rest of the neighborhood. The media swarm that those tragedies spawned was all encompassing with reporters starting to call my house at 5 AM, and often not giving up until 9 PM. During the months of August, September, and October a national news clipping service reports that the Pipeline Safety Trust was quoted in 1824 stories in 724 separate news sources.

That is why this blog has been on a hiatus. Luckily, things have started to mellow out again in the pipeline world so hopefully the blog will become a little more regular after the first of the year. I look forward to once again having the time to devote to this luxury.

For those of you who are interested in these pipeline safety issues there is much information on the Pipeline Safety Trust’s website here. A good seven minute TV story about many of these recent issues, and filmed in part along Whatcom Creek, can be viewed at:

http://www.energynow.com/video/2010/10/25/danger-below-how-safe-are-americas-pipelines

Happy Holidays!