A fracking pipeline
BRISTOL, PA — “When people hear about the proliferation of gas drilling happening in the U.S., the word “fracking” often comes to mind. But another word needs to join the drilling vocabulary: pipelines. The spread of gas drilling and fracking also means more pipelines. Every gas well that’s fracked and drilled requires approximately 1.6 miles of pipeline–and that is just to get the gas from the well pad to the interstate line that cuts its swath from community to community to community, linking all that potential harm together.
Pipelines are known to emit methane. Almost 1 percent–with some estimates being as high as 10 percent–of the gas drilled from a well is lost during the storage and transmission of extracted gas. And methane is the second largest contributor to climate change; it’s 21 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in warming the Earth.
Every pipeline brings with it a cut across the landscape. Virgin forests, residential communities, pristine waterways, and productive wetlands all must give way when a pipeline comes through.”
— Maria Rodale, Huffington Post
