On the morning of September 16, a vehicle drove through a Walmart parking lot near the communities of Deerpark, La Porte, and Pasadena, Texas, broke through a fence, and crashed into above ground valve equipment for an underground liquified natural gas pipeline. The crash touched off a fire, burning the liquified natural gas that was transported by the pipeline. The plume of flame, which could be seen for miles, continues to burn more than twenty-four hours later.
Pipeline operators reported that although the gas supply to the pipeline had been cut off upstream, there was still twenty miles of product to be burned before the fire could burn itself out. They anticipate the fire will be out sometime Tuesday afternoon.
Operators characterize allowing the product remaining in the pipeline to burn itself out as the safest option, but there have been consequences. There have been four reported injuries, two houses were completely destroyed, many residents remain evacuated from their homes, cars have been melted, and electrical infrastructure has been damaged to the tune of more than seven-thousand customers without electricity.
The pipeline was carrying liquified natural gas, the condensed form of natural gas, which has been at the center of a conversation among the Biden Administration, climate and clean air advocates, and the Department of Energy since earlier this year when the Biden Administration announced a pause on new export permits for LNG.
In announcing the pause, the Administration cited recent understanding that when it comes to climate-harming emissions, natural gas is not as significant an improvement over coal as once thought. Leaks of methane to the atmosphere at all phases of the natural gas recovery, refining, and transport process negate any climate benefits from natural gas’s reduced amount of CO2 emissions per unit of energy when compared with coal. These leaks are not only bad for the climate, they also contribute to poor air quality and health impacts to frontline communities.
Energy export permits are issued by the Department of Energy when it is deemed that those exports are in the public interest. The pause on LNG exports is to allow time for DOE to bring their definition of public interest up to date with currently available science on methane and climate change. Those interested in continuing LNG export claim economic benefits, a lower carbon footprint, and supplying Europe with LNG in light of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as reasons LNG exports are in the public interest. Climate advocates point to the climate harm caused by methane, and the myriad climate impacts which come along with a warming climate, as reasons to stop LNG emissions.
After pushback from industry groups and oil and gas producing states, including Texas, Judge James Cain of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana overturned the pause on new LNG export permits this July.
Monday’s explosion and subsequent fire raises questions about the safety of transporting LNG via pipeline through residential areas. According to the US House Energy and Commerce Committee, there are 3.4 million miles of pipeline in the US, many of which run underground through the heart of our communities. You can use the Texas Railroad Commission’s Public GIS Viewer platform to find out if there are any pipelines near you.
In January, the Pipeline Hazardous Materials Safety Administration initiated a rulemaking to improve safety of pipelines. In May the agency released a proposal for safety improvements for pipelines and gathering lines that includes leak detection, updated requirements for leak surveys that cover more pipelines, and requirements to make improvements to reduce leaks. This package, called the PHMSA Advanced Leak Detection Rule was submitted to the Office of the Secretary of Transportation in August and is now awaiting evaluation by the Office of Management and Budget.
These improvements are a common sense way to improve public safety, reduce methane emissions that contribute to climate change, and improve air quality. The stronger regulations have faced pushback by industry groups which claim the improvements to be unacceptably burdensome.
The relationship between the Texas oil and gas industry and federal regulators has long been fraught, and the conversation about pipeline safety is no exception. But this recent accident, and the enormous column of fire that has been burning for the last thirty six hours, are a visceral reminder of the reasons we have safety regulations for the oil and gas industry.
It is not in the public interest when a single vehicle can cause a massive inferno right in the middle of town that takes days to extinguish. It is not in the public interest when methane leaks from a pipeline, causing poor air quality and increased rates of childhood asthma in low-income communities. It is not in the public interest when increasingly severe hurricanes smash into the Texas coastline, drowning coastal communities and knocking out our electrical grid. In other words, LNG exports are not in the public interest.
Our faith communities have cultural memories of another awe-inspiring pillar of fire, the one that G-d used to lead the Israelites out of Egypt into safety in the desert. That fire must have seemed dangerous and unpredictable too. Sometimes it takes something dangerous and unpredictable to get our attention. Perhaps this modern day pillar of fire is one more sign to us that it is time for a change, that our dependence on fossil fuels is oppressing us, spiritually and physically, even as it devastates the landscape we depend on. Just as our ancestors followed a pillar of fire as they left a life of increasingly untenable oppression and ecological devastation, perhaps we can let this modern day pillar of fire lead us out of the dependence on oil and gas to which we are held captive.