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Natural Gas Extraction * Natural Gas Transmission & Storage Safety * Power Plant Pollution & Global Warming * Natural Gas Economic Cost * Extraction of Other Fossil Fuels * Energy Conservation & Renewable Energy Natural gas causes environmental contamination at every step of its long journey from extraction from the earth's crust to combustion in a power plant. Earthworks Action's Oil & Gas Accountability Project details the pollution inherent in each phase of the natural gas extraction process:
Stimulation: Hydraulic fracturing, a common stimulation technique, involves fracturing the target formation with high pressure injection of various substances and propping open the fracture with sand. AIR: Exhaust fumes from heavy equipment, flaring/venting of gas, wastes stored in pits may contain volatile chemicals that escape into the air. SOIL: Many fracturing chemicals are hazardous, and may contaminate soil if spilled on site. WATER: Fracturing fluids may be injected into or come in contact with fresh water aqwuifers. Waste fluids stored in pits may contaminate surface or groundwater if pits leak or overflow. Produced Water. In conventional natural gas and oil formations, water production increases with time as oil and gas are depleted. This water is piped or trucked to disposal ponds or underground injection wells. AIR: When stored in open pits, volatile hydrocarbons escape into the air. The pumping of shallow water may result in the migrations of methane and H2S from soil to air. Exhaust is created from water pumps powered by diesel or natural-gas-fired engines. SOIL: salts, metals, hydrocarbons or traces of chemical additives in produced water may contaminate soil if spilled on the surface or stored in earthen pits. WATER: produced water may contaminate waters through spills, pipeline breaks, leaks from storage ponds, or movement of injected water into a freshwater aquifer. Separation & dehydration. During separation & deyhdration, gas is separated from oil, natural gas liquids, and water. AIR: Dehydrators and separators often vent large volumes of methane and volatile organic compounds. Dissolved hydrocarbons in wastewater may escape into the air. SOIL: Pits or tanks that store wastewater may leak or overflow and contaminate soil. WATER: Wastewater may contain dissolved hydrocarbons, sand, and metals that can contaminate surface and groundwater. Gas Compression. Typically, diesel or natural
gas fired engines provide power to compressors that compress the gas
at the well site and at centralized compressor facilities.. Some compressors
are used to pull the gas out of wells, while other compressors push
the gas along a pipeline. AIR: Engine exhaust; occasional venting of
natural gas. SOIL AND WATER: Soil and water pollution may occur due
to spills or leaks of diesel or other fuel used to power the compressors. Natural Gas Transmission & Storage Safety There is nothing safe in the transportation and storage of flammable fuels such as natural gas. The governmental Office of Pipeline Safety records hundreds of incidents involving natural gas pipelines each year. You can download their incident statistics at http://ops.dot.gov/stats/IA98.htm.
Power Plant Air Pollution & Global Warming Air pollution kills more than 50,000 people a year in the U.S. -- more than traffic accidents, breast cancer or AIDS. The health and environmental consequences of air pollution are not included in what customers pay for electricity from exempt power plants. As a result, the health costs from power plant pollution are imposed on taxpayers and health care recipients. A 1998 report put out by the Florida Clean Power Coalition, "Taking our Breath Away," delineates the effects of each of the pollutants power plants in Florida produce, along with a rating of the dirtiest plants in the state. According to the the Energy Information Administration, Florida ranked second highest in the U.S. for carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2004. The State's electric industry ranks ninth highest in sulfur dioxide (SO2) emissions and second highest in nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions. Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Florida Electric power plants and automobiles are the prime sources of global warming causing carbon dioxide emissions on the planet. The harms associated with climate change are serious and well recognized. Even the conservative US Supreme Court acknowledged that:
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change yearly puts out a series of reports on climate change, compiling the scientific details, acknowledging the current and future impacts, and recommending policies. Despite these well known facts, the federal Environmental Protection Agency has tried to escape regulating carbon emissions. Now it seems they are running our of excuses. In April 2007, the US Supreme Court, in the Massachusetts v. EPA decision, ruled that the EPA indeed has the authority and responsibility to regulate carbon emissions. But it may be years before any new regulations come out, and existing power plants may be exempted from meeting new standards.
Natural gas is a byproduct of oil extraction. As oil reserves run low, not only does the price of oil increase, so does the price of natural gas. According to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy:
Extraction of Other Fossil Fuels
Indigenous communities all across the continent resisting the exploitation of their natural resources have faced severe repression from energy corporations. From as far away as Nigeria & Colombia to right here in the U$A where the Dineh are fighting coal mines and power plants in Black Mesa and Desert Rock, people have faced forced displacement, asassination, and massacre.
Could the Everglades be the next major ecosystem to fall at the hands of fossil fueled power plants? The Everglades is widely recognized as the only ecosystem of its kind in the entire world, and it is the focus of the world's largest and most expensive restoration projects to date, CERP. Environmentalists the world over believe the success or failure of this project will greatly influence any future large scale restoration projects. As Marjory Stoneman Douglas has said, "The Everglades is a test. If we pass, we may get to keep the planet." The main threat to the Everglades system is real estate development - from loss of actual area due to the drainage and conversion of wetland to real estate, to the dramatic rerouting of the Everglades' characteristic water to support homes, farms, and industry. Its second biggest threat is pollution. FPL's new power plants offer both. Its proposed plants could enable over half a million new housing units to be developed in historic Everglades land, while at the same time extracting millions of gallons of freshwater daily from the Everglades system. Toxic emissions will degrade air quality, while potential fuel spills could permanently pollute sensitive waters. It is clear that any energy produced with fossil fuels comes with unacceptable hidden costs. The only answer is to reduce our energy use until all of it can be produced with sustainable, eco-friendly and bio-friendly, methods. For more stories and information on communities' struggles against
all kind of mineral extraction, visit http://www.minesandcommunities.org/index.htm Energy Conservation & Renewable Energy
FPL and other fossil fuel energy companies claim that renewable energy sources are too expensive and experimental to meet our rising energy demands. But in February 2007, the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy put out a report detailing the potential for energy conservation and renewable energy sources to meet Florida's projected needs while improving the state's economy, wihout investing in any new fossil fuel plants. According to the state university's Florida Solar Energy Center, there is a great potential for cost-effective solar energy use in the state. A recent report states that:
Kilowatt Ours is a great film that illustrates the devastation of conventional energy production, and shows how we can conserve energy and switch to renewable energies on all levels - from individual residences to entire school districts to the whole natio |
Drilling:
Drilling involves boring down to rock formation that contain oil or
natural gas. During completion, fluids and rock debris are removed.
Gas usually exits as these materials come to the surface and is typically
flared. AIR: Exhaust fumes from drilling equipment, venting and flaring
of natural gas. SOIL: Muds and cutting, which may contain chemical additives,
salts, metals, and hydrocarbons, are often stored in pits and buried
on site, potentially sterilizing soils. WATER: Contaminants in pit sludge
may leach out of the soil or overflow the pit and contaminate nearby
soils, surface water, and groundwater.
A
few harrowing stories:
Fossil
fuels are becoming more and more scarce, and as they do, the fierceness
of companies who wish to extract them has become extreme. Human communities,
protected wildlife, and entire ecosystems that stand between them and
their profits will be destroyed. 
El
Cerrejon Norte, one of the world's largest open-pit mines - occupying
an original area 50 kilometres long and eight wide, and expanding constantly
- is a continuing horror story of forced relocations of indigenous Wayuu
& Afro-colombian people, human rights violations, environmental
destruction and other assorted injustices that one human rights group
calls "a perfect example of globalization gone horribly wrong."
One clear example of grotesque human rights abuse is the case of Bahia
Portete, La Guajira, Colombia. This community suffered a massacre at
the hands of paramilitaries and Colombian Army on April 18, 2004 that
left 12 people dead, 20 missing and 300 displaced. To learn more about
this tragedy and join the Wayuu solidarity campaigns, visit the 
Our wildernesses
are facing equal devastation. Nationally treasured ecosystems from as
far away as Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to as nearby as
South Florida's Big Cypress National Preserve have been compromised
in the search for more oil and natural gas. The Appalachian mountains,
the world's oldest mountain range, are being literally blasted apart
in the attempt to get at coal seams with minimal effort, through a process
known as Mountain Top Removal (MTR). Over 400,000 acres of the forests
of Southern Appalachia - the most biodiverse temperate forests in the
world - have been blasted into moonscape by MTR coal mining and over
1,200 miles of streams buried. Aerial inspections show that between
15 and 25 percent of southern West Virginia’s mountains have been
leveled by MTR mining. To learn more about MTR and its disastrous effects,
visit 
In our struggle
against this or any natural gas power plant, we do not look towards
other fossil fuels or nuclear power as the solution. The only solution
can be the reduction of energy consumption and the use of only completely
renewable, environmentally non-toxic, and socially non-toxic sources.