Themes Shaping the World: The Decline of American Infrastructure

Evidence:

• Regulators' investigations suggest more refinery disasters waiting to happen: Reuters reports investigations into the causes of the devastating explosion and fire at Philadelphia's PES refinery fire on 21-Jun have focused on some piping dating from the 1970s and allowed to run to failure. The article notes the investigation is raising questions about the safety of America's 17M bpd refinery system, especially as some older equipment is exempt from more stringent standards for newly installed parts. It adds decades-old equipment also sparked at 2010 Tesoro refinery explosion in Washington and a 2012 refinery blast in California. Separately the WSJ talked about the fire being started by a component that had not been inspected in 40 years. 

• Wildfires in California and PG&E Turning off power to prevent new fires.