When sizzling temperatures in June affected the air pressure in pipelines in West Texas, companies in five counties vented millions of pounds of natural gas and other toxins into the air. That analysis followed an earlier report by Public Citizen, an environmental watchdog group in Texas, stating that 18 emission events — the term used for unexpected releases of airborne pollution — were attributed to extreme heat in the West Texas gas fields last month, including nine in Reagan County. Those emissions included 362 tons of natural gas, which is largely made up of the potent greenhouse gas methane.
The heat-related releases were equivalent to the greenhouse gas emissions of more than 5,000 cars in one year. But they are a tiny fraction of the approximately 30 million tons of annual U.S. methane emissions estimated in recent years. Oil and gas systems are the largest single source of methane emissions, according to the EPA.
It is sadly ironic that the fossil fuel industry is seeing its equipment threatened by a situation it helped create,” Adrian Shelley, Texas director of Public Citizen, said in the report. (Texas Tribune)
PROFITS ABOVE PEOPLE. STOCK SHARES ABOVE SAFETY. CORPORATION WELFARE ABOVE COMMUNITY. Pick one, state your own, but in TEXAS, fuck ya ’all and the air you breathe, it’s about the Benjamins, so just choke, as we continue to PROFIT AND PROFIT AND PROFIT! Remember it is many a CORPORATION that pays their Republican Politician Puppets to ignore the People!
