Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 02-18-25_TUESDAY_8AM

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Pipelines and southern Oregon...VERY important and a lot being discussed about it and I dig in with Glenn Archambault who is on the Pipeline Safety Trust.

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clouser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at ClouserDrilling.com. Heavier rain into Wednesday with a high of 54 and breezy. By the way, that repeals Senate Bill 762 wildfire map bill. The protest happening next week. This is the rally, February 25th. So it's going to be a week from today, actually, next Tuesday.

And I've just been told that there is a bus. In fact, there are a number of buses that will be leaving from Medford, Grants Pass, and Roseburg. Medford, 6 in the morning, they're going to depart. And 6.30, departing from the Walmart and Grants Pass. Albertsons and Roseburg at 8.05 departure. Food for Less will leave Medford about 6 a.m. That's when that's going to be going on. Costs $65.

And I'm going to get the information up on, I'm going to put this on KMED.com. I'm going to save this. And it'll take me about until I get off the air, you know, to get that up there. But I will put that information up there so you can take a look. And I will put a show blog post on going to the rally in Salem, okay, if you wanted to go up there. A lot easier to take the bus, right? Then you can sit around there and shoot the breeze.

$65 for the round trip, okay? And you're going to get paid by this Friday because they want to get the payment to the bus company by Saturday for next Tuesday. So we'll tell you more about that in just a few. Leonard Shambo. Normally we talk agricultural issues with about that in just a few. Glenn Arshambo. Normally we talk agricultural issues with him, but he's on the Pipeline Trust. It's a big deal with the new administration

and why the pipelines and you matter next. This hour of the Bill Myers Show is sponsored by Fontana Roofing. For roofing gutters and sheet metal services, visit fontanaroofingservices.com. When you call Fontana Roofing, our singular. 19 after 8, Glenn Arshabo joins me right now. Glenn, stand by because I just want to make sure people know. I'm going to promise you that within the next half hour or so,

we're going to get you tickets to the News Watch 12 2025 Sportsman and Outdoor Recreation Show put on by Bi-Mart. It's starting, I guess, let's see, 18, 19, 20. Yeah, it's going to be Friday, Saturday, Sunday. We're going to have free tickets for you. So just stand by. I want to get as many people in there as we can. Now, Glenn Archambault, of course, I know him. We've talked to him for years from his Farm Services elected representative position here for our area.

But there's another part of your background that I think people don't know, Glenn, and it has to do with you're on the Pipeline Safety Trust. Is that a committee of some sort? How does that actually work, and what does it mean for Southern Oregon? Go ahead. It came from a drastic, horrible pipeline accident in Bellingham, Washington. And people in that town said, we're not putting up with this. And I got in touch with them because I'd been dealing with pipelines for years before that.

So, complicated subject. Well, let's see if we can bring some clarity to it. Pipeline Safety Trust. And what kind of pipelines are we talking about crisscrossing in Southern Oregon? Is it mostly natural gas or is it possibly gasoline fuels? I don't know, really. I know about natural gas. We know about water pipelines and such.

What kind of pipeline safety work do you do? Well, we have a big focus on gas and also the other products that you normally see, gasoline, diesel, solvents, a whole bunch of other chemicals that probably most people couldn't even pronounce. But we're looking at things that might pose a risk. You know, and for instance, here in Jackson County, the only real pipelines we have are gas. But if you go somewhere north, then you hit the gasoline pipelines. Totally different animal. Yeah, I would imagine that Pipeline Safety Trust, when you talk about gasoline pipelines, you really want to watch that. Because that's what happened in that Bellingham explosion, right?

It was a gasoline pipeline that leaked or ruptured, right? Yes, it did. And it was a series of bad mistakes, bad management, bad training, everything that could go wrong in one day went wrong, one of those kind of situations. And gasoline is really scary. When it gets out of the pipe, man, you better be running. Yeah.

Well, natural gas is nothing to sniff at either, no pun intended, when it comes right down to it. But that's okay. We're not going to be using natural gas any nothing to sniff at either, no pun intended, when it comes right down to it. But that's okay. We're not going to be using natural gas any longer, I know, because the kids in Ashland don't want it being used, and the city council ended up acquiescing to them. And I know that I always go to kids when I'm looking for what energy needs used about here. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, Bill, I hate to tell you this, but I'm not a big supporter of pulling the pipelines out. You're not? No, no. And the reason why is because you're never going to get that done. If you've never actually pulled a pipe out of a trench, it is such a project, and you're going to hit the thing up on the ground and torch off. It's a huge project. So when Ashland's talking about pulling those pipes, something they're forgetting is that they're in a special agreement with Bill Clinton back in those days, and it was to do with converting everything to natural gas, and that included Southern Oregon. All right.

So we have, though, cities that are considering themselves climate czars or through the energy czar and climate czar kind of thing, kind of pulling out from this. Why should we care then about your work at the Pipeline Safety Trust then? Why does this matter right now and what changes have come in with the Trump administration, the incoming, well, the new Trump administration, rather? Well, one thing to really remember here in this discussion, Bill, is that we have not had any kind of serious accidents do anything to do with pipelines in Southern Oregon. We've had other kinds of mishaps that were pretty scary, the fires, that sort of thing, the guy who set all the fuel on fire in Medford. You know, so weford. So we've done a good job on safety.

So if you're talking about abandoning gas, then you're going to have to talk to me. I've got some bad news for you. This is never going to happen. They're not going to pull those pipes out. But even then, Ashland, the city of Ashland, is not talking about pulling the pipes. Really, they're just saying we're going to charge you more if you want to use a gas furnace, which I don't know how well that will work for them long term. But we can have an argument about it.

Yeah. Long term. Here's the long term, Bill. If you had to go out today and pull the pipes, turn the valves off, you know, shut the whole thing down and convert over to what? That's where it gets fuzzy, right? Well, all you need is electric. Electric everywhere here, Glenn. Electric.

Well, they act as if electricity is an energy source rather than just the product of other energy being converted to it. Don't you find that interesting, Glenn? Yeah, it is interesting. And being on the end of it, we're listening. The trust is listening very carefully to these discussions about, you know, changing our whole energy picture. We like the idea. We don't like the idea that this is going to happen haphazardly.

We're just going to, you know, throw our hands in the air and start turning things on and off and hope something good happens. We're not going to do that. All right. I want to talk with you, Glenn Archambault, about the board meeting, the Pipeline Safety Trust. You had a conference in New Orleans, and this is when everybody gets together from all around the country in various other pipelines, trusts. And you got the U.S. Department of Transportation that's there. You have the regulators. You have industry all showing up in New Orleans, landowners, and all the rest of it.

What is the status of the pipeline world in the United States, and what might or might not be changing? Any thoughts, anything that comes from that pipeline trust? Yeah, a big one. Okay. War in Europe. The war in Europe has screwed with all of the fuel and energy systems on the whole planet. Oh.

So where this is going forward to is hard to say, but I suspect those discussions today, and Trump eventually is going to end up in the middle of it. Well, he's in the middle of this. So is this also going to include kind of like talking about how maybe our own intelligence agencies blew up Nord Stream, right? That's a possibility. You know, dangerous work. Yeah. If you can get it.

You know, any of those things are possible. But what I look at is day to day. You know, what's happening here in the western states, for instance? Big things are happening. Prime Minister of Canada, the head of the energy in Mexico, Donald Trump, are all talking about these great moves to build bigger lines, up the pressure, a whole list of more gas for a lower price. That's what's brewing right now. So for all the talk then of the city of Ashland famously wanting to back away from natural gas,

natural gas is, in fact, if anything, will become a larger portion or at least a larger importance when it comes to supplier of energy here out on the West Coast over time? It's going to be far more important because it's going to go direct to conversion systems, you know, power plants, LNG facilities that are stationary. LNG is that are stationary. LNG is a huge issue right now. You know, Bill, here's a hard one that I need to explain this. I would come and help the students at Ashland High. If they're willing to subject themselves to some hard education. That's the thing I see missing in all of this.

It's really easy to wave your hands in the air and say, we want to get rid of this gas. It's a whole other subject to make that actually happen. Hard, hard work. Yeah. What is the hard work involved if you were to delve in with the Ashland students? Because they look at that natural gas underground here for mostly Avista, but there are other providers too, I would imagine, they look at it as somehow killing the planet. Might be. Prove it to me. You know, I'm a reasonable guy, Bill. I listen to both sides with the same effort and attention that they both deserve.

You know, and so I know the kids there and a whole lot of people in southern Oregon are very concerned with the use of natural gas. But I've got to tell you, Bill, I don't see the practicality of how you're going to abandon that and move it on to something else without being well-educated, experienced, and ready to really do that kind of work. All right. Now, back to then the plans that the pipeline safety trust was discussing at this uh this big shrimp fest over in new orleans you're all getting together all right i don't know

if you had any shrimp there or not i'm just kind of calling it a shrimp fest we had lots of it was an exciting conference let's put it that way but what i'm hearing from you is that far less than than like reducing natural gas, the Trump administration is going to be expanding it, and you could be... When you talked about it being... Was it direct conversion plants? Does this mean like peaker plants

and stuff that fills in when the wind doesn't blow and the sun doesn't shine on the renewable energy? When something goes horribly wrong, you need a backup. And some of this is backup. Some of it's going to be continuous operation to produce energy. Because

we're in a place that's growing. I mean, look around Jackson County. We've got lots of growth, lots of new buildings and homes. You're going to have to supply them with energy or tell them not to come. Okay. And so ignore ashland is what you're telling me right now no i'm i'm going to be very focused on what they have to say um it's just you know bill i i have a different background i know that if if i were you know a 15 year old kid at Ashland High, the world would look very different than I see it.

What I see is a responsibility. I know a lot about this subject. We have a few people in the country that do know this subject. But one thing we all know is that if you don't have any energy tomorrow morning, you're going to be a really unhappy camper. And that's what really drives all of this. I think that there is a, I don't know if it's a conceit, but the normalcy bias, right? You know what normalcy bias is, that no matter what, every day you come in here, you flip the switch, and that there will be energy coming out of that socket.

There are a lot of moving parts then that make that possible including natural gas and the pipelines that crisscross our area that's right um and it's a and we've we've got pipes believe me 36 to 42 out there in eastern oregon washington and into canada is that the one that goes to malin that one we're talking about okay that. Okay. That's part of a system. You know, if you cross the border, the international border, boy, you're really deep in energy land, Canada. Canada ended up building the pipeline that we rejected. Is there any talk then about restarting those pipeline projects that were rejected in the last administration and also probably in the Obama administration, too?

Is there any talk about that at the Pip safety trust yes yeah yeah we're we're watching any and all and and that's a biggie is that are we going to build bigger and more pipelines to satisfy this energy demand or are we going to come up with other energy sources well we haven't gotten very far in other energy sources not yet none that I've heard of. And we're still turning down nuclear. So, all right. Is there any talk that we will have to expand the pipelines that we exist or that already exist in Jackson and Josephine County? Any thoughts on that? Yes, we will end up doing that, especially if we don't get our butts moving and come up with true alternative energy sources,

things that truly function and will do the job. We're not there. So what are you going to do? Okay, so here's one that's in place right now. So I live along TC Energy's line that comes out of Canada, and they have applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to up the pressure, change some software, do a bunch of tinkering, which is going to end up being more gas because they're saying that we need it.

Okay, well, upping the pressure, though, could also have a safety issue involved, right? And they have to do that certification, or are the pipes already certified for that? Oh, yeah, they're already up and running right now. Oh, okay. All right. But it's a matter of bumping the pressure volume. Here's one. I know this is always a tough one, Bill. The pressure in the pipe doesn't really dictate safety. It doesn't?

Uh-uh. No, I mean, if the thing got off, yeah, believe me, you would know it. It's a big deal. But generally, that's not the issue. You know, many gas lines are small. They leak. They leak into a building. You see this almost every day.

Some poor person somewhere ends up blowing a house up. That's become really common. But it wasn't the pressure. It was that the thing was leaking for some reason. So, and the same thing is how old are these pipes? Well, some are pretty old. The big ones are back in the 60s. And that's what I was wondering about the safety of the existing pipelines,

because many of those were built quite some time ago, and everything is a lifespan, doesn't it, when it comes to pipelines? No. No? I know. And I'm not giving you a bad time, Bill. Yeah, it's important to understand how this works. For the miles that we have on the ground, we have little safety issues.

It's when something goes terribly wrong. That's when the world changes. Okay, so as long as nothing blows up, we're fine. All right. Yeah. Scoop and Steve looking at me through the window and saying, changes. Okay. So as long as nothing blows up, we're fine. All right. Yeah. I think I got, yeah. Scoop and Steve looking at me through the window and say, okay, all right. As long as we don't have any leaks. But I would imagine though that the current pipeline systems, don't they have a pretty sophisticated leak detection sort of thing in which we know how

much we shoved into it up here. We know how much has been taken out as it goes down, and we can figure out if we have any major leaks. They can do that, can't they? Yeah, to some extent. Depends on how fast things are moving. You know, if some clown gets on a backhoe and digs right into that pipe at 1,000 PSI, then leak detection is not going to be an issue. You are going to see that leak.

It's going to be a big-time leak. So, you know, actually, the whole world of pipeline safety bill does not work like you normally would think. Really? Most of it's pretty safe. You know, I mean, things just – I've lived along gas pipelines most of my life. They never blew up. I always suspected they could. One year, well, it took several years. We had the feds dig the pipeline on the farm up to examine

questionable wells. So, I mean, real detail goes into things going wrong. And so our good friends from the NTSB, who are so busy they can hardly stand it. Well, having upside-down planes landing in Toronto as an example. Oh, boy, and I know these guys. I was just at the lab, NTSB lab in D.C. last month, and these are some really serious people, man. The stuff they dig up about safety you just can't believe um but they they know what they're doing and they work on this every day um so you know rest assured you're safe and the community's safe you know i wanted to ask you

something i've always wanted to talk to a pipeline guy about this yeah what about terrorism security when it comes to pipeline because the one thing i will say about our pipelines are much the same things as i would say about our electricity infrastructure it's exposed for the most part you know it's like you know transformer systems they're all out there yeah they're behind a bar you know behind a chain link fence or something like that but i've often wondered is there much talk about that at the pipeline safety folks we're not allowed to talk about it bill no i'm kidding you um i wouldn't be surprised if you weren't allowed to talk about it though that's what i was getting at you know 9-11 the day after they pulled the maps couldn't go online and see where the pipelines were.

There was a huge move to secure those facilities and all of the infrastructure that goes with it. Remember, the refineries are hooked to it, power plants. This was a huge issue and still is. There's people deep in our government, in our intelligence, that are watching this daily. Is there suspicious activity going on? You wouldn't believe the tips the public come up with. They have caught some people doing some really bad things, and I don't know all the facts about them. But we're not asleep then when it comes to national security issues involving pipelines then? No, we're not. But I think what has gone on in Europe is a good example of what could happen,

because they're very unsecured. I mean, look at they managed to blow up Mr. Putin's precious pipeline over there in the ocean. That should have never have happened. Yeah, well, I think that was called foreign policy under a different name, right? Yes, yes, I think that was called foreign policy under a different name, right? Yes. Yes, it was. I know, and I watch this business very carefully. There are people out there doing things they shouldn't be doing, and it's very hard to stop them.

But the big, broad item, though, Bill, is that the West Coast is very exposed. We have so much energy infrastructure on the West Coast. And who's out there in the water? Oh, the Chinese Navy. That's a huge risk. Blowing pipelines up in time of war or disagreement is an old issue because they really get people's attention. Do you believe that we will ever get a gasoline pipeline down to southern Oregon so that we will have a more consistent liquid fuel supply without having to truck it over the passes? Any thoughts on that? Yeah. Any place where you're trucking fuel, you immediately enter into the discussion,

and the trust has been in this discussion a long time, that you can't get away with things that aren't working. So what's not working is hauling fuel from – you know the fuel that we use is Bellingham fuel. Yep, Bellingham. Long travel. Long travel. Long travel. Long travel. Long travel. The pipeline has got to go. It's the Olympic pipeline.

It's got to go all the way to SeaTac, all the way to Eugene. It's a big pipe and a lot of miles on it. And so that pipe is what's fueling you most of the time. And so if we start, I can't see anything other than building more capacity on that line. That's the only option. But I would imagine there would be great political resistance to that in Oregon from the Greens. They would probably – and yet if we were – because it would make it easier then to use liquid fuels. Yes.

But, you know, I'm just – okay, so my group, the Pipeline Safety Trust, are very calm-headed people. They don't go off the deep edge. We talk to anyone. We had a long discussion with the Environmental Defense Fund when we were last in D.C. You know, we talk to everybody on all sides of the table. You know, and I know people are not going to be happy. Everybody's going to be mad at me. They'll be sorry about this subject. Building new gasoline pipelines.

Oh, my God, Bill. There'd be fighting in the streets over that one in Medford. But I'll tell you, it's going to happen one day. They're going to build that line. They're going to up the pressure, put new pipe in, all kinds of possibilities. All kinds of possibilities besides actually building a new pipeline.

All right. Will do. Hey, Glenn, I appreciate the inside look because I never really knew much about this Pipeline Safety Trust here. And so anytime there's a pipeline thing, you're going to be my go-to guy. All right? Yeah. And anyone can open those websites. There's lots of information of all kinds there with their staff working on issues that you can negotiate whatever you want. We've got some great people on the job. So it's there. This is for the public. And yes, we are having a

discussion with Mr. Trump about how they're going to fund us going forward. Yeah, I'm sure that Mr. Trump is having many conversations about how to fund many things moving forward. We know that. All right. Hey, Glenn. Hey, thanks for that. You be well. We'll talk soon, I'm sure. Maybe about ag next time. All right. Glenn Archambault, Pipeline Safety Trust, a side of the federal government and our state governments that a lot of us don't think about, but yet we're using it every day. You're on the Bill Meyers Show. Introducing Sweet...

770-KMED. Hey, Tracy's here. Tracy, you wanted to comment on the Glenn R. Shambo talk on Pipeline, Pipeline Safety Trust. What are you thinking? Go ahead. Wonderful, Wonderful call. I just want to remind folks that it was not just the Bellingham pipeline explosion that killed two people back in 1999. More recently, just in 2023, December, just south of here at Mount Vernon in a place called Conway, right off I-5, the BP pipeline Olympic took out 25,000 gallons escaped of gasoline. Whoa. And it created quite a scene in the local estuaries and whatnot.

They cleaned it up, but, you know, it's still not a perfect solution. And, you know, the big thing was, I think we can all remember, it made national news, was down in the natural gas pipeline down in San Bruno, California, that killed eight people. Yeah, that was the one that leaked for quite, was that the one that leaked for quite some time and they didn't know it? Was that the one? Yeah, it was a 30-inch pipeline back in 2010 down in the Bay Area.

Yeah. It was near San Francisco. That was a big one. So that really doesn't scare me as much as the other big factor is the big natural gas storage facilities and fuel storage facilities down in Linton, which is just northwest of Portland. And that's really the seismic fault, you know, the big Cascadia. And they are working things to improve the seismic survivability of that. But, you know, I think it's like some massive percentage of Oregon's fuel comes in through Linton there on the Willamette.

Yeah, but we have to import it from elsewhere, really, for the most part. By the way, do we do much dice storage here? I think it's what they call it, dice storage. You see, to recall, when I was living in Pittsburgh, there was a place called dice storage where they would, for people's natural gas, and they would pump the gas underground instead of in storage tanks. And they would leave it there, and then they would take it out of the ground when they wanted it, when they needed it. I do know of one place in Oregon, and that's the old mist gas field up by Vernonia, up in that area. That pretty much petered out and uh they were

going to i think they have been using that as a storage natural storage facility and yeah because if you could get natural gas out of something you could pump gas into it and hold it there for a while kind of a natural nature's tank so to speak right that kind of thing and there's one other area i don't know much about. Maybe your folks, your listeners can look into it, is south of Coos Bay. There were some old coal mines, and they were looking in that area for natural gas. And I don't know the success of that, but that would be interesting to find out if they've been able to actually get natural gas out of that area. It's just south of Coos Bay. All right. Hey, thanks for weighing in on it, Tracy.

Good hearing from you up in Mount Vernon. It is 846. Let me go to Brad. Hello, Brother Brad. How you doing? What's up with you today? Go ahead. Great segment with Glenn.

I mean, is there anything more important than energy except maybe water and groceries, Bill? Is there anything more important than that? It's all there, part of Maslow's hierarchy, right? It is. So you and I know that it was leftist political ideology that shut down the Boardman plant, which at the time was producing on any given day between 35% and 38% of all of Oregon's electricity, right? 550 megawatt, you know, million, 550 megawatt plant shut down, ran on coal, didn't find, they got it shut down by raising the emission standards to where they could no longer reasonably, oh, dog, we just have to shut it down. So now we're, now we're, we have to get all these other, we got to have solar, got to have windmills, none of which are revenue positive. We know that when it comes to these so-called solar farms and windmills,

the only thing that makes them work are these massive subsidies. Bill, where do those subsidies come from? Where does the majority of the money come from that fuels these gigantic subsidies for power? Where do those come from? USAID? Just kidding, but, you know, I don't know. You know what? You're not far off. Really? And when the Doge Group gets around to mapping all this, what we're going to find is you want to talk about corruption and influence peddling, you're going to find it on the highest order because all of these things, the money is going to places that people are going to be really surprised.

So when it comes to talking about natural gas, it's plentiful, it's economical. And the reason these high school kids get talked into this stuff, Bill, is really simple. It comes to talking about natural gas. It's plentiful. It's economical. And the reason these high school kids get talked into this stuff, Bill, is really simple. They're not at a point in their lives where they're paying the bills yet. And they haven't been hurt yet by those decisions. Exactly. Now, if they do, maybe they would, you know, if all of a sudden they see a lack of food in the co co-op you know maybe they would have a difference of opinion there brother brett hey appreciate the call thanks for talking about the money i'm hoping the doge does go there okay all right uh we will hold the calls here for just a minute we'll get

back to your calls in in just a little bit this is the bill meyer show