IMAGES:
Storage/distribution fire (PA, CNN)
Home service fire (NC)


Gasoline Pipeline Transportation

> Between 1986 and 2003
• 3302 incidents
• 37 fatalities
• 254 injuries
• $857,432,100 propertydamage
• 1,804,685 bbls net loss

Source: USDOT/OPS
IMAGE:
Ruptured gasoline pipeline fire

Gasoline Consumer Distribution

> Roughly 7,400 fires and explosions annually
• two deaths and 70 injuries
• $18 million in property damage
• Gasoline often first material ignited.
• Static discharge accounted for 3.2 percent of fires that occurred outside vehicles or structures.Source: NFPA

IMAGES:
Gas station fire, Nevada
AP/CBS photo of cell phone suspected of igniting gasoline
fire (NY)

Oil Environmental Damage
IMAGES:
Major Tanker Spills, 1970-Present (Source: ITOPF)
Oiled duck, Prince William Sound (Source: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council)
Beached oil (Source: FWS)

Propane

> 1,600 LP-gas fires in U.S. homes (1998)
• 41 deaths,
• 260 injuries,
• $30.8 million in direct property damage.

> 600 gas grill fires/explosions annually
• 30 injuries

Sources: NFPA, CPSC
IMAGE:
Propane Delivery Truck Fire

Electricity

> 38,300 home electrical fires (1998)
• 284 deaths
• 1,184 injuries
• $668.8 million in direct property damage

> 400 deaths from electrocution (2000)

Sources: NFPA; CPSC

> Hydrogen has many "safe" properties:
• non non-toxic.
• dissipates quickly in open spaces.
  • 14.4 times lighter than air.
• burns rapidly
• emits one-tenth the radiant heat of a hydrocarbon fire
• produces no smoke or emissions

> It is difficult to cause a mixture of air and hydrogen to explode
• Requires a constrained volume
• hydrogen/air mixture must be twice as rich as gas/air mixture and four times as rich gasoline/air mixture.

> explosive power is 22 times weaker than the explosive power of gasoline vapor.

> poses little if any threat to the environment.

Hydrogen Testing

> Simultaneous hydrogen and gasoline fires
> No damage to hydrogen car
> Gasoline car completely destroyed

Extensive Analysis

> "No safety issues are foreseen that would warrant cessation of hydrogen as a vehicle fuel. "
Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (1999)

> "Hydrogen is no more or less dangerous any other energy carrier" and °∞has properties that in certain areas make it safer than other energy carriers."
Bellona Foundation (2002)

> "[H]ydrogen H]ydrogen can be produced, stored and dispensed safely."
US Department of Energy

> "[t]he experience with hydrogen in NASA and AEC operations has been extremely gratifying in that relatively few accidents have occurred."
NASA

Extensive Research

Bonfire Test
Crash Tests
Assessment after Drop Test
Vibration Test
Permeation Test

Potential Areas for Tort Liability

> Transition to consumer use will create challenges, but no different than other fuels

• Products liability
• Negligence
• Abnormally dangerous activity

> Products Liability
• General rule: commercial seller or distributor only where product is defective and the defect caused harm to persons or property.
(See Third Restatement of the Law, Torts: Products Liability, Section 1 (1998)
• Types of defects
• Manufacture
• Design
• Failure to warn

Products Liability

> Manufacturing Defect
• Generally, must be a problem with the product itself
  • Contaminated gasoline, kerosene, natural gas, and propane cases
  • Contamination caused deviation from regulatory standard, usually resulting in a fire because of reduced flashpoint
• Hydrogen
• Stringent purity standards under development
  • Potential liability for producing "substandard" hydrogen
• Likely to see manufacturing defects in storage vessels (e.g., cylinders, tanks, valves, etc.)
• No different than other fuels

> Design Defect
• "the foreseeable risks of harm posed by the product could have been reduced or avoided by the adoption of a reasonable alternative design... and the omission of the alternative design renders the product not reasonably safe."
(See Third Restatement of the Law, Torts: Products Liability, Section 2(b) (1998))
• H2 is a natural element - can't be redesigned
• Likely issues will be design of storage systems and devices, valves, piping, etc. > Failure to warn
• Significant research underway on leak detection sensors and odorization
• Potential issue: may be difficult or impossible to odorize H2
• However, law only requires reasonable warnings under the circumstances
Third Restatement of the Law, Torts: Products Liability, Section 2, note (i) (1998).
• Hydrogen no different than other fuels

[IMAGES]
Natural Gas Pipeline Warning Sign
Hydrogen Gas Pipeline Warning Sign

Negligence

Elements:
• duty to conform to a standard of conduct designed to protect a reasonably foreseeable plaintiff against an unreasonable risk of injury;
• breach
• actual and proximate cause; and
• damages.

> As with other fuels, full range of defenses:
• comparative/contributory negligenc
• compliance with industry standards, etc.

Abnormally Dangerous Activity

> Not a likely source of liability
• Usually requires really dangerous activity in an inappropriate location
  • Storing/transporting large quantities of gasoline in a residential neighborhood
  • High explosives High explosives
• Hydrogen not that dangerous
• H2 will become mainstream in the community, just like other fuels are today