Pop goes the pipeline

Today's news of a gas pipeline explosion in Ohio closely follows the news a few days ago of a similar explosion in the neighboring state of  Pennsylvania in which 5 people died.


raw video found here:
http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-news-columbiana-county-gas-explosion,0,299501.story


With our aging pipeline infrastructure, and the demand for oil and gas continuing to rise, I was curious to see if I could find information about how many pipeline explosions have occurred recently around the world.  I learned that in just the past few years there have been serious pipeline explosions in California, Texas, Mexico, Canada, Egypt, Nigeria, and Belgium.

This does not even include the oil refinery and pipeline leaks in Chicago in 2010, or the others I wrote about in previous posts here:

http://amazingmotherearth.blogspot.com/2010/08/here-spill-there-spill-everywhere-oil.html

and here:


http://amazingmotherearth.blogspot.com/2010/08/oil-spill-history-links.html


While worldwide statistics regarding oil and gas pipeline explosions are not so easy to find, here are just a few of the links I found with a simple Google search:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_pipeline_accidents

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-13/fatal-gas-blast-prompts-scrutiny-of-aging-u-s-fuel-pipelines.html


http://money.msn.com/business-news/article.aspx?feed=AP&date=20110211&id=12984736

http://www.kget.com/news/local/story/PG-E-releases-list-of-high-risk-pipelines-two/RbrpFt-GPE-4IE-FVlvdWw.cspx

http://www.bizmology.com/2010/09/15/pges-gas-pipeline-explosion-what-lies-beneath/

http://www.un-naturalgas.org/hydraulic_fracturing_a-z.htm


The U.S. alone is crisscrossed with more than 2.5 million miles of fuel pipelines, or enough to circle the earth about 100 times.  That makes me nervous.  How about you?
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Update March 5, 2011 - Here's a link I found today regarding an onshore natural gas "blowout" that took place near Yellowstone Park in Wyoming in 2006, and how it's still affecting the local resident, their environment, and their property values:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110305/ap_on_re_us/us_onshore_well_blowouts
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