2022 Pipeline Incidents Update: Is Pipeline Safety Achievable?

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes substantial federal subsidies, which accompany numerous state subsidies for the development of hydrogen as an energy source.  Along with this comes the development of carbon capture technology, on the dubious claim  that it will prevent hydrogen derived from fossil fuels from a catastrophic contribution to atmospheric carbon, and in turn, planetary warming.

With the generous subsidies in place, we may soon be talking less about whether the carbon capture plan holds water and more about whether the thousands of additional miles of pipelines that will likely be built with this money can hold hydrogen and carbon dioxide.

The US Department of Energy (DOE) states that hydrogen can be transported through pipelines, and that indeed, about 1,600 miles are already operational.  While this represents a miniscule fraction of the nation’s 3.3 million mile pipeline network, the number is likely to grow with the federal and state subsidies in place.  As DOE points out, hydrogen is prone to leaks due to the small molecule size because it embrittles steel and metal welds in pipeline infrastructure, leading the department to suggest that fiber covered polymer pipes (perhaps similar to fiberglass) might be appropriate.  Of course, such polymers would help to keep demand for petrochemical plants higher as well.

DOE also suggests the possibility of blending hydrogen with the existing gas stream.  In one of numerous similar projects around the country, SoCalGas and the University of California, Irvine “…proposed collaboration to demonstrate how electrolytic hydrogen can be safely blended into existing natural gas infrastructure on the university’s campus.”  Of course, the analogy of safety as the north star applies in this situation, as well.  Some researchers who have already evaluated the idea claim that it won’t work.  According to Energy Innovation, this blending, “would increase consumer costs, exacerbate air pollution, and cause safety risks while minimally reducing greenhouse gasses.”

Carbon dioxide pipelines can be problematic as well. Sixty-eight of the incidents in the Hazardous Liquids report were for pipelines carrying carbon dioxide on just 5,000 miles of pipe, or an incident every 73.5 miles since 2010, which compares poorly to the average of one incident per 405.4 miles for the entire 3.3 million mile pipeline system.

One of these incidents occurred on February 22, 2020, in Yazoo County, Mississippi, where more than 300 people were evacuated and 45 people sent to the hospital, according to the local Clarion Ledger.  A local sheriff’s investigator said that the affected people were, “acting like zombies,” while the local emergency management director said that some of them were, “foaming at the mouth.”  Incidentally, on the PHMSA incident report, the operator Denbury Gulf Coast Pipelines, LLC indicated just 200 evacuations and no injuries, reminding us of the questionable reliability of self-reporting.  They claim that a weld failed on a segment of pipe that was laid in 2009 as a result of earth movement that was in turn caused by heavy rains, and that the pipeline was code compliant.

We would argue that if the pipeline was code compliant, then the code itself failed to protect people and the environment from the effects of heavy rain, a condition that is sure to occur repeatedly in the future.