I previously said that I didn't want to focus on "stupid people" and I still don't want to do that. Because what ultimately happened here is a collapse of a system that was created by lots of people. The people who created that system, by the way, aren't those who were present on Thursday at the gas company. Nope. They're all gone on to their greater reward or have simply retired.
A system failed. A human-created set of rules and procedures didn't work. When New Mexico Gas Co. decided that it didn't need to service the coldest, most isolated communities on its system, they made a conscious decision to follow a protocol that industry executives had established years ago. They followed a procedural book that someone wrote back in the 1970's.
How do I know this? Simply put: a very loud cell phone conversation in a small lobby at Taos Ski Valley on Friday morning.
Please stay with me. . .
It's Friday morning, February 4, 2011. I'm helping a guest of La Posada de Taos finish his ski week at Taos Ski Valley. We've arrived at the Ski School and he's getting his equipment. I'm standing there checking e-mail on my Blackberry. A large gentleman with a distinctive Texas accent (I know, I grew up there) is having a very loud conversation on his cell phone in the little lobby of the equipment rental office. He's not slowing down or trying to be quiet I'm assuming because he's very excited about something.
I keep hearing the words, "That's what I told the media," and "The press I spoke to were told that it's the blackouts."
What disturbed me is what I heard next. "At some point someone is going to start talking about the protocol; the 1970's protocol that set this whole thing up."
Well, I guess I can start talking about it if no one else has.
At some time in the 1970's the procedures were established for dissemination of gas from Point A to Point B in the fields that service what is now known as New Mexico Gas Co. The owners of the production and distribution system prepared for an emergency involving predictable interruptions and shortages. They made rules for where their supplies would go first, second, third, etc. The system was geared to address conditions known at the time based on federal and state law then existent, populations and power plants then existent, and other quantifiable, provable facts known at the time.
Let's say that this was developed in light of the 1970's Energy Crisis and was adopted in 1977. Therefore, I'll say that the "1977 Protocol" was the plan in place when the Winter Storm of 2011 hit our region.
The explanation that pumps were being turned on and off, that pressure could not be maintained because of the shortage caused by the inability to pump and all the related "details" that New Mexico Gas Co. gave us during the Gas-tastrophe start to fall apart in light of the truth surrounding the 1977 Protocol.
What actually happened, in my opinion, is that those who control the production followed a set of procedures -- the Protocol -- they had in front of them. They didn't care about what the results of following this protocol would be. In their minds, they didn't need any information about the "effects" on communities or who they would "affect." The simply did something by a book that was written in another time by other people who could never have anticipated explosive population growth in the region thus could never have foreseen the demand for gas created by a 21st Century Storm.
It's a shame and someone needs to look into this Protocol -- perhaps demanding that it be rewritten.
It's not a perfect comparison, but here is where I'm coming from: In the legal system today we follow protocols developed over the centuries for the orderly administration of justice. Much as it in Congress and elsewhere, the procedural rules of the legal system are often more important than outcomes. As an example, follow the development of Consumer Protection Statutes in every state from the 1970's when a consumer could make a claim without a lawyer to the present when lawyers are the only ones who can see claims through the system.
Call me cynical, but in my opinion we are often focused on the game while the score isn't being followed whatsoever. Sadly, procedures and protocols are constantly used by those who are losing or those who are wrong to prolong the game. Worse yet, they are filled with traps for the unsuspecting.
So, here we sit on our 4th night without Natural Gas, with the "relighting" proceeding at a snail's pace because of Protocols and Procedures. Rules and Regulations? Words and more words written decades ago and never considered until we got what the National Weather Service now calls an "Epic Storm."
We'll have gas tomorrow I expect and all will slowly fade into the background of the history of this region, but it's my hope that the fade will only occur after we've all had a thorough explanation as to how our lives were turned upside down by the Gas-tastophre of 2011: the Protocol of 1977.
No comments:
Post a Comment