Some of our politicians would have you believe that deregulation of energy production would be a good thing. The propaganda assures us that drilling can be done safely and won’t do harm.
Our experience where the government fails to exert control is, frankly, ugly. The damage is visible, and for people who live off the land, it can be an existential threat. Reading this article will convince you that nothing good comes to locals when big energy is unfettered.
We need to keep beating the environmental drum. Even though anyone who is awake knows the role big oil continues to play in our lunge toward oblivion, we are too easily diverted from the fundamental fact that burning fuel and making single-use plastic stuff is killing the planet.
The reason for liquifying natural gas it to move it to parts of the planet where the price is better for the drillers. The domestic market is flooded, and most of us know that burning it or making plastic of it is harming generations to come, not just us. But energy companies pay nothing for these tragic collateral effects of taking gas out of shale.
Tell ’em to leave it in the ground.
Sidebar: Does it honor out nation’s flag to display it over a symbol of environmental ruin? Most of us are not proud of our reliance addiction to fossil fuels. We don’t think it’s remotely patriotic or civic-minded to permit these depredations.
Here is an online tool to help you know and understand the threats present in the air and water at fracking sites.
Energy companies and those who enable their environmental damage downplay the effects of toxic substances in produced water and releases of vapor and gas into the atmosphere. Nothing that happens around fracking improves the environment or the health of those exposed.
LNG increases health risks by supporting additional wells and production. But it also brings added risks of its own. Leaks and flares produce hazards for the locals. (You knew these facilities would not improve the air or safety of the neighborhood, didn’t you?) And having large volumes of gas under extreme pressure in huge spherical tanks . . . what could possibly go wrong? What mischief could a rogue band of terrorists make?
There is a special word that experts use to describe the hazard: “BLEV.” Here’s what you get when you Google the word:
- Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE):This refers to a specific type of explosion characterized by the rapid vaporization of a liquid due to a sudden pressure drop.
- Mechanism:When a vessel containing a pressurized liquid, like propane or another chemical, is heated to a temperature exceeding its boiling point at normal atmospheric pressure, the liquid inside becomes superheated. If the vessel ruptures, the pressure inside drops suddenly, causing the superheated liquid to flash into vapor.
- Consequences:This rapid vaporization leads to a significant expansion of volume, generating a powerful explosion. The explosion can be accompanied by a large fireball, blast waves, and the projection of debris from the ruptured vessel.
- Danger:BLEVEs are extremely dangerous, posing risks of injury, death, and significant property damage.
If the explosion is preceded by leaked gas that spreads through the neighborhood, mixing with air, the horrendous effects are multiplied because the explosive gas/air mix is everywhere, and the explosion envelops everything. With LNG tanks, the amount of stored energy is vast, and the radiated heat from the expanding fireball sears and ignites everything that can burn. Read more here.
How many of the politicians and investors who seek LNG terminals want to live near one?
(I hear only the crickets.)
LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) makes it possible to transport large quantities of fossil energy to foreign countries that want to make plastic or burn it as fuel. Neither of these uses is kind to Mother Earth.
Solution: Keep it in the ground.
It’s a scam. We should not be investing in recovering Lithium from wastewater that we should not be creating in the first place–full stop.
