Chapter 1
Our Addiction
On July 30, 2003, one of the two pipelines that supply fuel to Phoenix,
Arizona, broke. The company that owns the line, Kinder Morgan Energy
Partners, continued to operate the line. Over 12,000 gallons of gasoline
leaked into the desert between Phoenix and Tucson. On August 8—a full
10 days later—Kinder Morgan finally decided to shut it down and fix the
leak. Within 48 hours many of the city’s 800 gas stations were empty, and
during the crisis, over half were empty at any given time. We know the rest:
long lines, opportunistic station owners doubling prices, loss of productiv-
ity, anger, fistfights, and panic.
The line that broke, the “east” pipeline coming from Texas via Tucson,
supplies only 30 percent of Phoenix’s pumped fuel. The other “west” line,
from Los Angeles, supplies the other 70 percent. During the crisis, the west
line increased its flow by 15 percent, causing high fuel prices across South-
ern California. Additional fuel was trucked into Phoenix at great cost. On
August 25, Kinder Morgan reopened the pipeline, and within a few days
Phoenix returned to normal.
Imagine if a major earthquake were to hit Southern California, destroying
the larger pipeline that services Phoenix. Unable to fulfill basic needs with
trucks and higher flow from the east line, Phoenix would become uninhab-
itable in a matter of weeks, if not days. A pipeline being down 20 days for
repairs is one thing, with a commensurate amount of panic and decreased
mobility that accompanies it; a broken pipeline with no relief in sight brings
with it an altogether different kind of panic, as well as total immobility and
loss of productivity.
Phoenix is a large region, no doubt, but it is not a huge region, population-
wise, nor is it an economically essential one, such as New York City, Los
