OPINION:
A Los Angeles neighborhood was rocked by a natural gas explosion last week, injuring seven firefighters.
While it’s among the most cost-efficient and actually green power sources we have, natural gas is transported through a creaky network of pipes, some of which have been with us since World War II ended.
Instead of funding endless wars outside our borders, Congress ought to turn some attention back home, fixing the infrastructure needed to take us through the current century and into the next.
Efforts to draw attention to this critical infrastructure problem have been subsumed in the debate over the construction of new pipelines that trigger reflexive opposition from the so-called natural resources groups and their allies.
The two issues are separate and should be treated that way. America can function, for a while at least, without the new pipelines. If the existing network is allowed to fail, everything stops.
The Energy Information Administration estimates nearly 60% of American homes rely on natural gas to provide heat, hot water, cooking fuel and clean clothes. It is also a primary source of energy for the commercial sector.
When the wind doesn’t blow and the sun doesn’t shine, it’s natural gas that generates the supplemental power needed to keep the lights and heaters going and the pot boiling on the stove. That irritates the lefties who have tried to ban use of natural gas to advance their fantasy of a world powered solely by windmills.
Those of us grounded in reality realize the importance of shoring up our power delivery network. A significant natural gas leak is reported just about every two days, while minor leaks can go unreported — even undetected — for years.
Between 2010 and 2021, nearly 2,600 documented pipeline leak incidents were reported to the feds. Of those, 328 resulted in explosions in which 122 people were killed and more than 600 injured at a cost of over $4 billion.
In April 2023, the Biden administration committed $196 million to fund natural gas pipeline modernization projects across 19 states. The funding is supposed to produce “reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” Still, it has the added benefit of increasing pipeline integrity and safety.
Reps. Dan Meuser, a Republican, and Chrissy Houlahan, a Democrat — both from Pennsylvania — have also proposed incentives to update pipeline networks by replacing less reliable technologies from the past.
More should be done, including a comprehensive review of the vulnerable locations, facilities and components in the national natural gas pipeline infrastructure. Leak evacuation standards need to be set. Most importantly, none of this work should be set aside because the enemies of fossil fuels would rather eliminate natural gas from the nation’s energy mix entirely.
The federal government already acknowledges the substantial risk associated with our leaky natural gas infrastructure. Sitting back and allowing disaster only provides fuel to the intermittent-energy advocates.
Lawmakers naturally prefer spending money on shiny new projects that they can point to as a personal accomplishment. Spending on infrastructure that might be buried deep in the earth will never be exciting, but it’s important to the nation’s future.
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