Natural Gas Pipelines and Social Vulnerability in the United States: Reflections from an Interdisciplinary Collaboration
Abstract
Research collaborations between natural and social scientists can contribute richly to public discussions around climate change, energy infrastructure, environmental justice, and other areas where environmental science and society intersect. This presentation highlights, as one example, a recent collaboration focused on the societal implications of midstream natural gas infrastructure in the United States, which includes a vast network of gathering and transmission pipelines that connects upstream extraction to downstream consumption. The collaboration grew from individual and collective questions about the broader implications of this infrastructure for environmental justice. As a team, we combined theory and practice from our respective areas of expertise to examine the distribution of natural gas gathering and transmission pipelines with respect to social vulnerability in the United States. Using a set of geospatial and statistical analyses, we found the pipeline network to be concentrated more heavily in socially vulnerable areas than in non-vulnerable areas. We combined quantitative results with a critique of current regulatory practices and policies, and we offered recommendations for decision-makers who work on issues related to oil and gas infrastructure. Finally, we worked with journalists and science communicators to foster additional public discourse around environmental justice, equity and disparity in the policy realm, and related issues. At each stage, the collaboration benefitted from our diverse academic perspectives and from our individual commitments to amplifying perspectives of marginalized communities.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2021
- Bibcode:
- 2021AGUFMSY25F..01E