Yesterday evening TPM Reader PD wrote in a note that, in addition to a more detailed technical explanation, "An explosion at a jet fuel terminal, which is a pumping station, would have no effect on the fuel "artery," no more than lighting your stove has any effect on your natural gas pipeline." It sounded like PD knew what he was talking about. And now this article at MSNBC, after passing on various lurid tales of half of Queens blowing up, quotes ...

Richard Kuprewicz, a pipeline expert and president of Accufacts Inc., an energy consulting firm that focuses on pipelines and tank farms, said the force of explosion would depend on the amount of fuel under pressure, but it would not travel up and down the line.

“That doesn’t mean wackos out there can’t do damage and cause a fire, but those explosions and fires are going to be fairly restricted,” he said.

So it sounds like the whole 'plot' as well as virtually all of the news coverage of said 'plot' is based on a misunderstanding of how the pipelines work.

If you know more about the technical details of this issue, please drop me a line. Also, I'm interested in particularly egregious TV or print reporting on this incident and these arrests. So if you see cable news jockeys saying how all of Queens was going to blow up, shoot us an email about that too and we'll try to get the footage.