Category: SawOn Aug. 2, 1983, a natural gas pipeline owned by National Fuel Gas Company exploded at the southern tip of West Virginia. The explosion started a fire that burned for several days and was reported to be the worst in the history of the state. More than 300 homes were destroyed, mostly in Berkeley and McDowell counties. Fires continued for six weeks and burned 9,000 acres.
National Fuel shut down the pipeline due to damage in the area. Another pipeline owned by the same company was shut down in West Virginia a year before, in July 1982.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities in the state, filed a lawsuit against National Fuel on behalf of the people of the state. A U.S. District Court jury awarded $77.8 million to the state in damages. National Fuel appealed the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which in July 1990, ruled in its favor and overturned the decision.
In January 1992, National Fuel submitted a $400,000 settlement offer to the state to resolve the suit. According to the West Virginia Office of the Attorney General, the offer was rejected by the state.
Why did the lawsuit go on for so long? In West Virginia, a new law required the state to follow federal court orders for filing a complaint against an energy company.Theoretical study of chemical reaction rates between acid-base catalysts and CO: Lewis acids favor, while Brønsted-base acids slow, the production of water.
Car-Parrinello molecular dynamics simulations of the reaction of carbon monoxide with the Lewis-acid fluorides LiF, NaF, and Li2CO3; the Brønsted-base-acid-catalyzed reaction of CO with LiH, KH, and LiO3H; and the ionic-complex-catalyzed reaction of CO with K3O2H are reported. The theoretical reaction rates and activation energies are reported and compared to experimental values. The activation energies in all cases are larger than in previous studies, reflecting a narrowing of the energy gap between the initial and transition states. Simulations performed on potential surfaces defined by natural bond orbital-based energy decomposition analysis show that the activation energies and rate constants for the reactions of CO with LiF and NaF are predominantly the result of an interaction between the CO and the ionic sites of the catalysts, while the activation energies and rate constants for reactions of CO with ac619d1d87
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