KINDER MORGAN WATCH

Tuesday, April 22, 2008 2:00 PM PDT
By The Associated Press

http://www.tdn.com/articles/2008/04/22/breaking_news/doc480e517e36d56898...

PORTLAND — Federal prosecutors in Oregon had a little Earth Day message for a Louisiana shipping company — pay $240,000 for illegally dumping fertilizer in the ocean to avoid landfill fees.

The U.S. Attorney’s office in Portland announced Tuesday it has charged Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. with violation of the federal Ocean Dumping Act.

As part of a settlement, the company is expected to pay the nearly quarter million-dollar fine — with a third going to Oregon environmental projects managed by the National Fish and Wildlife Fund.

Federal prosecutors say they learned about the illegal dumping when inspectors for a Kinder Morgan customer discovered a bulk cargo vessel taking on an unscheduled load of potash — a fertilizer known as “light salt.”

Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/04/21/daily17.html

Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. has reached an agreement to settle a felony charge of ocean dumping.

On Friday, Oregon U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut filed felony charges against the company, which is a Louisiana-based subsidiary of Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP . The criminal charges alleged that in August 2003 a Kinder Morgan employee at the company's Port of Portland terminal paid a ship captain to illegally dump potash in the Pacific Ocean.

Monday, April 21, 2008 - 2:53 PM PDT

Portland Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2008/04/21/daily9.html

U.S. Attorney Karin Immergut filed felony charges Friday against Kinder Morgan Bulk Terminals Inc. for "transporting material for dumping in ocean waters without a permit."

Kinder Morgan is a large energy and pipeline company.

The one-page court document filed Friday does not elaborate on the charges against Kinder Morgan. It alleges that in August 2003 the company "knowingly, by and through its agents and employees, caused to be transported from the United States material, for the purpose of dumping the material into ocean waters, without a permit issued pursuant to the Marine Protection, Research and Sanctuaries Act."

J. Ronald Sutcliffe, the Idaho-based Department of Justice attorney handling the case, declined comment.

The attorney listed on court paperwork for Kinder Morgan did not immediately respond to a call for comment.

The charge is likely related to a whistleblower claim filed with the Environmental Protection Agency against the company by former Port of Portland dockworker Jerry Cressa.

As reported by Willamette Week in August, Cressa claimed that in the fall of 2003 Kinder Morgan paid a freighter captain at the Port of Portland to haul 159 tons of contaminated potash out to sea and dump it.

Rep. David Wu, D-Ore., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., subsequently contacted the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Justice and U.S. Coast Guard to inquire about the allegation.

2008-04-08 - Filings made public today, showed Agran Libbie completely dumped all -110,136 shares they owned of Kinder Morgan Energy Partnersl P (KMP).

Seeking Alpha
April 01, 2008

Kurt Wulff

The apparent collapse of Carlyle Capital, a unit of one of the three largest institutional owners of the general partner of sell-recommended Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP), illustrates the one-sided nature of the KMP deal. It seems that the politically-connected Carlyle Group, whose partners have reaped billions of dollars of personal reward when financial leverage worked for them, will walk away from billions of dollars of obligations when leverage turned against them.

The equity investors who trusted in the Carlyle Group connection to Carlyle Capital have lost all their capital, we understand. Similarly the general partners of KMP, including a unit of Carlyle Group, reap almost half the cash flow from limited partners’ borrowings and investments without any significant capital contribution or legal obligation to stand behind the debt of KMP.

Thus, an investment in KMP is no more secure, in our opinion, than an investment in Carlyle Capital proved to be. In contrast our income buy recommendations are financially sound, offer a more secure return and provide oil and gas price appreciation potential not available in KMP.

Bloomberg News

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/biz/5571033.html

A group led by Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP raised the estimated price for a natural-gas pipeline by $500 million, or 11 percent, because of increased construction expenses.

The Rockies Express Pipeline, which is intended to carry gas from the U.S. Rocky Mountain region to the Northeast, is expected to cost $4.9 billion, compared with a previous estimate of $4.4 billion, Larry Pierce, a spokesman with Houston-based Kinder Morgan, said in an e-mail today.

The city says much as 300,000 gallons of gasoline may have seeped from this fuel tank depot in Mission Valley and is suing to hasten its cleanup. Photo: Rob Davis

By ROB DAVIS Voice Staff Writer

http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/02/25/environment/899kinder...

Monday, Feb. 25, 2008 | Nearly every drop of fuel consumed by San Diego's cars, trucks and passenger planes is first piped from Los Angeles to an industrial site that sits in Mission Valley north of Qualcomm Stadium. More than a dozen rust-streaked white tanks along Interstate 15 store the fuel, which then gets trucked to the region's gas stations.

The 10.5-acre depot, owned by Houston-based Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, has served as the region's fuel warehouse since 1962. And sometime in the ensuing years -- no one is exactly sure when -- fuel began seeping out from the tanks there. It crept nearly a mile south, beneath Qualcomm Stadium's parking lot and down into a groundwater aquifer the city hopes to tap for drinking water.

http://tinyurl.com/yw8lch

Sell-recommended Kinder Morgan Energy Partners (KMP) and Kinder Morgan Management LLC (KMR) reported another quarter of rich fee payments to the general partner after the market close on January 16. Quarterly distributions approximated $163 million in fees to owners of the general partner, $158 million in cash to KMP unit holders and $55 million in new units to KMR holders. Exceeding cash distributions, the fees are neither reported as expenses, nor as long-term dilution of KMP equity.

Natural Gas Line Explodes in Kleberg County

http://www.kiiitv.com/home/15567027.html

(February 12, 2008)

RICARDO--A natural gas pipeline explodes in Southern Kleberg County. The good news is nobody was hurt when that pipeline exploded in Ricardo, but authorities evacuated more than two dozen nearby residents just to be on the safe-side.

Residents said they were enjoying a quiet morning in Ricardo, then shortly before Noon, they said a 16-inch gas line exploded, forcing them to leave their homes.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=atY6mQ6kyEhA&refer=h...

Rising Exports

``For the next couple of years, I think we'll see export volumes fairly significant from the U.S. East Coast,'' Richard Kinder, chief executive officer of Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP, said at an investor conference yesterday. Kinder Morgan runs three coal-export terminals. ``We're going to have a very nice year in 2008 off of that.''