New environmental film promotes ‘How to Blow up a Pipeline’

By Around the Web

(Image by Robson Machado from Pixabay)
(Image by Robson Machado from Pixabay)

[Editor’s note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]

By Earl Baker
Real Clear Wire

The recent release of the environmentalist action film “How to Blow up a Pipeline” is a dangerous shot across the bow for anyone who cares about safe and reliable energy. The film criticizes climate activists’ commitment to pacifism and argues for the adoption of strategic property destruction as a tactic to destroy pipeline infrastructure projects.

While some may try to minimize the concerning nature of this film, it appears the goal is to make it seem as if blowing up a pipeline to achieve environmental goals is a moral act, however, it must be made unequivocally clear this language is never acceptable, whether intended to be serious or satire.

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Pipeline infrastructure ensures the delivery of safe and reliable energy to hundreds of millions of Americans to power their homes and businesses, while supporting essential services such as healthcare and emergency response. As the United States transitions away from coal and toward a new energy future, maintaining the integrity of the pipeline system that transports natural gas to power generation stations will become increasingly important.

While natural gas can also be transported by truck, rail, or ocean-going vessels – and all three provide essential links in the supply chain – it is moved most efficiently by pipeline. In populated areas, the majority of pipelines are buried safely underground, so people do not see them as part of their daily view. With about three million miles of natural gas pipeline in the United States it is difficult to underscore the significant role they play in the daily lives of many Americans. Pipelines, in short, are what connect consumers and producers to much of the energy that they use.

The radical environmental activists who would do harm to pipelines would be hard pressed to explain how they could achieve their goals without natural gas and the energy infrastructure that underpins its delivery. Not only has natural gas served as an important backstop in the transition to renewable energy – providing power to electric plants that can be brought online quickly when the sun isn’t shining or wind isn’t blowing – it has also been a major contributing factor to emissions reductions in the power sector. In fact, the transition from coal to natural gas for power generation has lowered emissions in the domestic power sector by 33 percent since their peak in 2007.

Energy is the essential lifeblood of any economy and society, not just the United States, and is what makes modern life possible. As a resident of Pennsylvania, second only to Texas in natural gas production, it is difficult to minimize how important this most recent energy revolution has been in helping us flourish as a state.

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If Hollywood wants to tell the true story about pipeline protestors, they would be wise to start by referencing events that have actually taken place. Much like their movie counterparts, real life pipeline protestors have engaged in acts of terrorism. But the victims have not been so-called evil energy companies but innocent farmers across the country who have had their crops destroyed, cattle killed and have been subjected to threats and intimidation from pipeline protestors that have prompted some to don bulletproof vests. The only environmental damage from oil and gas leaks, meanwhile, have come not from pipelines but from construction equipment fuel lines that were cut by protestors.

Such stories serve as an important reminder that the drama that Hollywood portrays on screen is often out of sync with realities on the ground. It the case of this most recent attempt at satire, the same can be said for their sense of humor as well.

Earl Baker is a former Chester County Commissioner and State Senator. In the Senate he chaired the Labor and Industry Committee. He is a recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Chester County Chamber.

This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.

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