Stephen_NH • an hour ago What we are seeing is an industry that hears its own death knell frantically attempting to postpone the inevitable for as long as possible by overbuilding infrastructure and locking us into long-term dependency on fossil fuels. In the process, they are destroying huge portions of our landscape, poisoning our water supply, leaking enormous quantities of methane (20 to 80 times more dangerous than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, depending on how one measures) into the atmosphere, and strong-arming municipalities, conservation associations, and landowners into giving up their rights. This is happening as the realization spreads, not only that natural gas is not a clean fuel, but that the very survival of our species and the planet as we know it depends on moving away from such ruinous, shortsighted energy policies and fully embracing new and existing technologies for using renewable fuels and improving efficiency through conservation. And our esteemed political leaders enable this travesty by turning the keys to the kingdom over to the industry. Here in New England, the six governors last year signed a joint statement saying We want more natural gas, despite the fact that an aggressive regional policy (the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) is in place, and every state is pursuing strategies to transition to truly clean energy. The alleged compelling need for more gas? To cover a shortfall that caused price spikes during week and a half of the past bitterly cold winter, when gas had to be diverted from electricity generation to home heating. So, said our policy makers to the natural gas industry, what can you do for us? Well, said the industry, we can lay 250 miles of new pipe through a hundred or so towns (targeting conservation land in virtually every one of them) and build the capacity to deliver an addition 2.2 billion cubic feet per day--an increase of 50% as compared to current usage levels. Well, of course theyll be exporting most of it, and that will cause market forces to drive up the price well pay, as John Prusinski correctly notes. And every demand for an increased supply of natural gas is a demand for increased fracking, a practice that is increasingly seen as environmentally disastrous and is quite rightly meeting with rapidly intensifying opposition everywhere it occurs (and beyond), threatening the ability to meet the increased demand that the industry wants to induce. (A fracking moraorium is in place in New York, home of the Marcellus Shale that the frackers desperately want to drill, and the New York Supreme Court very recently ruled that local municipalities have the right to ban fracking within their borders.) Where fracking is currently occurring, the yield is being found to be far less than the 100-year supply that the industry likes to cite. And pay no attention to all those pesky earthquakes popping up where the drilling goes on. Take a second look, and this clean, cheap, abundant fuel doesnt look so good anymore. The other need cited by the governors is is to spur the economy by keeping fuel prices down to attract new industry. To spur the economy, how about redoubling efforts to make the region a true world leader in the renewable energy industry? That would bring good, permanent jobs in great numbers. New England already depends on natural gas for 52% of its electrical generation capacity, and a vast pipeline infrastructure is in place. Those pipelines leak (but consumers bear the cost of this waste) and occasionally explode, and typically operate at only 70% of capacity. But instead of requiring the industry to repair existing pipes and use their existing infrastructure, we are preparing to let energy behemoth Kinder Morgan seek a permit from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission--notorious for practically rubber-stamping projects--to build its Northeast Energy Direct pipeline, using federally granted powers of eminent domain to take land from anyone who stands in the way. Were also preparing to enact a tariff on all utility ratepayers in the region, affording us the privilege of financing this construction for the benefit of Kinder Morgan. How did I learn about this proposed project? Did the Department of Public Utilities, or the Department of Transportation, or the Department of Environmental Services present a study spelling out the need for such a thing? No, I learned about it from a Kinder Morgan representative who came to my home seeking permission to survey my property for the purpose of routing the pipeline through it, about 50 feet from my well and 25 feet from my house. The Board of Selectmen in my town, in turn, learned about it from property owners like me. The buildup of natural gas infrastructure is a super deal—for the fossil fuel industry. It enables them to perpetuate the stranglehold theyve had on us for more than a century. For the rest of us, its another nail in the coffin of sanity and environmental responsibility. thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2014-07-15/soaring-natural-gas-production-new-pipelines-and-private-property-rights#disqus_thread
Posted on: Tue, 15 Jul 2014 15:10:14 +0000
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