Natural gas leaks exacerbate climate change
By Jonathan Thompson, High Country News
There have been 12.8 billion cubic feet natural gas released since 2010 in nearly 700 “incidents” reported to the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. This occurred in the nation’s natural gas gathering and transmission systems.
Natural gas leaks are not rare. Photo/Tod Baker
Another 36 million cubic feet of natural gas escaped during incidents from the distribution systems that deliver gas to homes and businesses during that time. Added up, it’s enough gas to heat more than 170,000 homes for a year.
Oil pipeline busts, like the one that wrecked the shoreline near Santa Barbara, recently, tend to get most of the attention these days — oil is sticky, nasty stuff. But natural gas infrastructure failures are equally alarming. Punctured natural gas pipelines can be dangerous. The reported incidents killed 70 people and injured more than 300. They can be expensive. Total costs in lost gas and property damage was nearly $700 million.
Natural gas leaks, Years ago we lost natural gas service to So. Shore for a spell. Cooking food on the Franklin stove and some really cold showers, because we had no gas and for a bit there was no electrity!
You don’t miss something till you don’t have it. OLS
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OLS
I remember that time, on the NV side it was out for ten days in some areas. Then the same company hit the same line in Gvill the next year.
I wonder if the natural gas leaks are worse than the unicorn farts and bear burps? I think we need another repetitive billion dollar study.
Sunriser2—
I think the earlier outage you speak of was a pipeline washout in the Carson River in a huge flood event. Not an excavation or construction accident.
Our modern lifestyle leads to many activities that are in one way or another deleterious to safety, the atmosphere and other major things, even perhaps life itself. How ’bout just going back to pre-history and living in the dark as hunter gatherers?
Jet airplanes burn millions of gallons of fuel, produce untold tons of carbon dioxide, and kill thousands of people each year. Should we ban them?
Electricity generation is probably the single most green house gas intensive activity caused by man. Cars may rub a close second. Should we ban both of these?
Many of the same people that scream about electricity generation from fossil fuels are also the ones who are responsible for the shutdown of many huge non green house gas producing hydro electric plants, because they aren’t natural and dam rivers. Solar productions demands billions of tons of mining with the related fossil fuel related green house gas production to produce all the esoteric and toxic compounds like heavy metals and rare earth chemicals needed.
Should we ban solar power and electric cars because of the mining and pyro processing required to build the machinery and the toxin filled batteries required?
Concrete demands mining, pyro processing of the mined material into cement, and is by no means a clean industry. Should we ban concrete in construction?
Should we ban farming of grains and corn due to the amount of fossil fuel required to run the necessary equipment?
Should we ban livestock to eliminate the methane caused by cow farts?
Should we install methane recovery on cows instead? Should we install methane recovery to trap all farts even people?
This is fun, I could go on for hours, or should we maybe just convene a global meeting to decide what is going to be acceptable going forward and turn out most lights, move to places that are temperate and need no air conditioning or heat? Everybody works at home and no commuting happens.
What would we have to riot and complain about then? Oh Yes! we would find something. Humans are very rarely happy.
Mass extinctions due to relatively sudden changes in the climate or the envoronment have happened at least 5 times with the resulting wipe-out of the majority of life existing at the time.
Maybe the next one, even if we caused it, will take care of most of us and our real or imagined problems. Come on green house gas!