Weeks after a ruptured pipeline spewed enough natural gas to power 40,000 home for a day in Ringgold, Louisiana, Energy Transfer has yet to comment about its latest environmental mishap. The gathering pipeline, located just 40 miles east of Shreveport, apparently began leaking the morning of July 22. As of this writing, an estimated 8.2 million cubic feet of natural gas was emitted before it was shut off. The company and officials still don’t know what caused the leak, though its impact was immediate. As the Times-Picayune reports, 10 people were forced from their homes and part of Louisiana Highway 4 was closed owing to the leak.
Wasted natural gas is certainly frustrating for consumers burdened by high energy costs and concerns over grid reliability, but it’s even worse for the environment. Bloomberg found that this leak alone was responsible for a massive methane plume generating emissions equivalent to the annual emissions of about 2,600 vehicles. In an email to Bloomberg, a Louisiana Department of Natural Resources official said that Energy Transfer had “sent a section of the ruptured pipe to a metallurgist to be evaluated” but had no further updates.
Aging infrastructure and lax regulations likely contributed to this failure from Energy Transfer. It’s also an alarming warning for Louisiana residents living under perhaps one of the most concentrated areas of natural gas pipelines in the country. A look at the Energy Information Administration’s map of pipelines in the U.S. renders Louisiana practically invisible by the many criss-crossing pipelines carrying natural gas within the state, out of state, and through thousands of miles of pipelines and countless intersections of gathering lines like the one that ruptured in Ringgold.
It’s only getting worse with companies like Energy Transfer continuing to push for even more fossil fuel pipelines for the sake of lining executives’ and shareholders’ pockets. Energy Transfer was one of a handful of companies scrambling to get even more pipeline mileage out of the Permian Basin, Reuters reports. Unpopular projects like the Bayou Bridge Pipeline and Energy Transfer’s most infamous failed project—the Dakota Access Pipeline—are Energy Transfer’s bread and butter. Who’s to say a little natural gas leak would slow a polluter like this down?
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