Notes From Underground: Season’s Greetings! Pipelines Leak! We Need Accountable Energy!

By Adam Arnold, Environmental Counsel

In 2022, we learned that humanity’s need for safe, reliable, accountable energy is still paramount. Or we should have – just like we should have in any of the forty or fifty years since the threat of anthropogenic climate change became public knowledge. Or even before that – at any time since we became aware of pollution and its health impacts. Regardless, 2022 offered many opportunities to learn.

Despite some bright moments, there has been more cause for disappointment than for celebration this year where energy production, transportation, and consumption are concerned. But to start on a high note, one cause for celebration came in Pennsylvania, where the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) penalized Shell Pipeline for various spills and discharges – and failure to report them – during construction of the Falcon Pipeline. In so doing, the DEP corroborated whistleblowers’ disclosures about the shoddy work being done (which would seem to contradict Shell’s website’s claim that the corporation “operate[s its] assets responsibly and [is] dedicated to protecting the health, safety and environment of the communities in which [it] operate[s].”).

The year ultimately offered several acute examples of the problems posed by energy sources that are neither safe nor accountable to the public, culminating in a huge, completely predictable leak from the Keystone Pipeline.

All Leakers, Great and Small

Holding Shell Pipeline accountable is an important event, but sheer scale means this victory (at around $700,000, the penalty is of the wrist-slapping variety) will unavoidably be overshadowed by massive spills like the estimated 14,000 barrels that spewed from the Keystone into northern Kansas.

There have been several significant leaks along the length of the Keystone – which brings oil from Canada through the US for processing and export – since it began operating in 2010. That these leaks seem to receive less and less press coverage should be disconcerting to every member of the public, but just as telling is the focus of that coverage, which has often emphasized economic impacts. Not of the environmental harm or cost of cleanup, or the harm to property of those through whose land the pipeline runs who will likely never be fully compensated, but of the cost of oil.

If prices spiking from market panic every time there is a significant leak or spill is a form of “accountability,” it is not one that provides a stable foundation for a healthy economy.

The extreme example of the problems – economic and otherwise – of pipeline reliance can be seen in the Baltic Sea, where authorities of several nations have still not been able to identify the saboteur of the Nord Stream pipelines.

Underwater explosions in September ripped huge holes in the pipelines that are intended to bring natural gas from Russia to Europe via Germany. Though presumed to be tied to Russia’s war in Ukraine, the only certain thing about the attack is that it exposed the risk of relying on fossil-fuel pipelines.

Pipeline Problems Plus

If the mystery of who sabotaged Nord Stream is likely to be determined eventually, the mystery of how to provide energy without risk and instability is a tougher nut to crack.

And if the answer that springs to mind is “nuclear power,” the conflict in Ukraine has highlighted concerns on that front, as well. In the very country that experienced the Chernobyl disaster, nuclear facilities have become pawns for Russian aggression. While thus far they have been hijacked to control Ukraine’s power supply (in conjunction with deliberate destruction of energy infrastructure), the fear of the Russian endgame becomes more visceral as the war wears on. Russian President Putin has claimed that the use of nuclear weapons is off the table, but the weaponization of nuclear power facilities nonetheless looms over Ukraine.

So, for those who would argue that nuclear power is a safe alternative to fossil fuel energy, Ukraine provides an example of the steep downside to reliance on another energy source that carries with it significant risk. Under control of those who would do ill, a nuclear power facility no longer appears ideal.

Climate Talks, and No One Listens

As a final reminder of the bind we – humanity – are in, 2022 saw another Conference of the Parties (COP) attempt – and fail – to find solutions to the global climate crisis. The gathering in Egypt was not completely without reward, but, if folks are awaiting a silver bullet to stabilize the climate, it did not manifest itself this year, nor is it likely to any time soon. As with pipelines and nuclear power plants, the problems are inherent to the product: pipelines leak, reactors may be weaponized, and fossil fuel use harms the environment and impacts the climate.

These facts, the fragile, vulnerable infrastructure that accompanies large-scale energy production and distribution, and the economic power that can allow large energy providers to self-regulate with no accountability beyond a spastic market, demand changes to how we generate and use energy. Accountability, transparency, and sustainability all point to the need to maximize local and renewable energy production, improve efficiency, and minimize waste.

The year concludes with no resolution to the man-made crisis of climate change, no resolution to the conflict in Ukraine, no solution for the dangers posed by hazardous energy sources, and continued reliance on pipelines to transport oil and natural gas.

But with each new year, there is new hope