The latest Equitrans-gression has dire planetary consequences
This blog post was written by POWHR’s co-director Denali Nalamalapu. POWHR is committed to holding accountable the financiers that make MVP possible. Join us on May 8 in Charlotte, NC at the Bank of America headquarters to make our voices heard.
The same company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline is responsible for one of the worst climate disasters of 2022; though the media barely covered the disaster, we never forgot it on the frontline of the MVP. The company now faces a fine of more than $1 million.
The methane gas disaster in Cambria County, where high volumes of gas leaked for nearly two weeks, is our nightmare. It is an example of the same corporate and regulatory failure that allowed MVP to resume construction of a needless pipeline across steep, landslide prone slopes.
The emissions from this leak account for 10% of all methane emitted by the state in 2022, five times what the nearby Shell petrochemical complex in Beaver County is permitted to emit every year. The gas leaked equals annual emissions from 300,000 gas-powered cars.
This was the worst methane gas leak since Aliso Canyon in 2015. From October 2015 to February 2016, residents of California were harmed by the largest gas leak in history at Southern California Gas Company’s storage facility. The Equitrans-caused leak in Cambria County was one-fourth the size of Aliso Canyon.
Photo credit: Chris Torres
The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, which has been inconsistent in its responsiveness to fossil fuel disasters, detected radioactivity in the soil. Equitrans claims it will work with the DEP to remediate the site. Long term exposure to radiation can cause serious health issues in the surrounding community.
Equitrans says this disaster happened because of corrosion, which caused a well casing to fail at its Rager Mountain storage facility. It has spent more than $18 million on the well fallout so far.
Equitrans has resumed pumping gas, except for the blown-out well and two others.
Earlier this year, Equitrans announced a merger with EQT, whose stocks have been falling for the past year. There is currently an investigation into Equitrans regarding possible breaches in their fiduciary duty and other violations. Equitrans is facing criminal charges for their role in a 2018 house explosion that severely burned a family.
Equitrans and EQT are reckless fossil fuel corporations that are liabilities to their investors. All financial backers tied up in their MVP boondoggle should extricate themselves immediately.