No source of energy is “safe”, i.e. has zero adverse effects. We are frequently consulted by people who have had their lives turned upside down by oil spills, some recent, some decades ago. Often, those spills cannot be fully cleaned up, and can tear families apart. Coal and nuclear each have devastating problems. Natural gas, the “transition fossil fuel” seems comparatively benign. It was therefore a useful to reminder to run across the
This Week In Natural Gas Leaks and Explosions
and fracking features of the Natural Gas Watch blog.Did you know, for example, that a massive natural gas explosion the devastated an entire neighbourhood in San Bruno, California in 2010, killing eight people and destroying 38 homes? Or that last month an explosion at a natural gas well in Bolivar, Ohio, killed 19-year-old Paul Sherman? Or that, according to Living on Earth, the carbon footprint of shale gas may be larger than that of coal?