Page 562 - Environment: The Science Behind the Stories

these impacts have been documented on the tundra of Alaska’s install the pipeline across their land. Many were happy to accept
North Slope, where policymakers continue to debate whether payments, but landowners who declined TransCanada’s offers
to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. found their land rights taken away by eminent domain—the pol-
Fortunately, drilling technology is more environmentally icy by which courts set aside private property rights to make way
sensitive than in the past. Directional drilling allows drillers to for projects judged to be for the public good. Following a 2005
bore down vertically and then curve to drill horizontally. This U.S. Supreme Court ruling, even private companies can usurp
enables extraction companies to follow the course of horizontal land rights. The landowner is paid an amount determined by a
layered deposits to extract the most they can from them. It allows court to be fair and cannot appeal the decision. As John Harter,
drilling to reach a large underground area (up to several thousand a South Dakota rancher along the pipeline route, put it, “I found
meters in radius) around a drill pad. As a result, fewer drill pads out that they have more rights to my property than I do. It makes
are needed, and the surface footprint of drilling is smaller. me very angry when I paid for it . . . and take care of it.”
In Alaska, to gain support for oil drilling among state
We all pay external costs residents, the oil industry pays the Alaskan government a
portion of its revenues. Since the 1970s, the state of Alaska
The costs of alleviating the many health and environmental has received over $65 billion in oil revenues. Alaska’s state
impacts of fossil fuel extraction and use are generally not inter- constitution requires that one-quarter of state oil revenues be
nalized in the market prices of fossil fuels. Instead, we all pay placed in the Permanent Fund, which pays yearly dividends
these external costs (pp. 164, 183) through medical expenses, to all residents. Since 1982, each Alaska resident has received
costs of environmental cleanup, and impacts on our quality of annual payouts ranging from $331 to $2069.
life. Moreover, the prices we pay at the gas pump or on our Such distribution of revenue among citizens is unusual; in
monthly utility bill do not even cover the financial costs of fossil most parts of the world where fossil fuels are extracted, local
fuel production. Rather, fossil fuel prices have been kept inex- residents suffer pollution without compensation. Even when
pensive as a result of government subsidies to extraction com- multinational gas or oil corporations pay developing nations
panies. The profitable and well-established fossil fuel industries for access to extract oil or gas, the money generally does not
still receive far more financial support from taxpayers than do trickle down from the government to the people who live
the young and struggling renewable energy sources (Figure 7.14, where the extraction takes place. Moreover, oil-rich develop-
p. 200; Figure 21.6, p. 603). Thus, we all pay extra for our fossil ing nations such as Ecuador, Venezuela, and Nigeria tend to
fuel energy through our taxes, generally without even realizing it. have few environmental regulations, and governments may
not enforce regulations if there is risk of losing the large sums
of money associated with oil development.
Fossil fuel extraction has mixed In Nigeria, the Shell Oil Company extracted $30 billion of
consequences for local people oil from land of the native Ogoni people, yet the Ogoni still live
in poverty, with no running water or electricity. Profits from the
Across the world today, people living in fossil-fuel-bearing oil extraction went to Shell and to the military dictatorships of
regions must weigh the environmental, health, and social Nigeria. The development resulted in oil spills, noise, and con-
drawbacks of fossil fuel development against the financial stantly burning gas flares—all of which caused illness among
benefits that they and their families may gain. Communities people living nearby. Starting in 1962, Ogoni activist and leader
where fossil fuel extraction is taking place generally experi- Ken Saro-Wiwa worked for fair compensation to the Ogoni.
ence a flush of high-paying jobs and economic activity, and for After years of persecution by the Nigerian government, Saro-
many people these economic benefits far outweigh other con- Wiwa was arrested in 1994, given a trial universally regarded as
cerns. Perceptions may change with time, however. Economic a sham, and put to death by military tribunal.
booms often prove temporary, and residents may be left with Wherever in the world fossil fuel extraction comes to
the legacy of a polluted environment for generations to come. communities, people seem to find themselves divided over CHAPTER 19 • FOSSIL FUELS, THEIR IMPA CT S, AND ENERGY CONSERVATI ON
Fort McMurray is the hub of Alberta’s oil sands boom. whether the short-term economic benefits are worth the long-
Fort McMurray’s population has skyrocketed from 2000 in the term health and environmental impacts. Today this debate is
1960s to over 100,000 today as people have flocked here look- occurring in North Dakota and parts of the West in response
ing for jobs. Most residents are men, averaging 32 years of age, to oil and gas drilling, and in Pennsylvania, New York, and
and the city boasts the highest birthrate in Canada. Salaries other states above the Marcellus Shale where the petroleum
are high, but so are rents and home prices. A well-disciplined industry is hydrofracking for gas (Chapter 7). The debate has
worker can become wealthy, but others fall behind, victims of gone on for years in Appalachia over mountaintop removal
drug abuse, alcoholism, or gambling. Like all boomtowns, Fort mining. There are no easy answers, but impacts would be
McMurray is outgrowing its infrastructure, and it is likely to lessened if extraction industries were to put more health and
experience a bust when the price of its principal resource falls. environmental safeguards in place for workers and residents.
Along the route the oil would take out of Alberta, the
Keystone XL pipeline extension would create 20,000 “job-
years,” TransCanada estimates—6500 construction jobs for two Dependence on foreign energy affects
years plus 7000 one-year jobs for manufacturers of supplies. the economies of nations
For landowners, the pipeline project has mixed consequences.
TransCanada has had to negotiate with thousands of landowners Putting all your eggs in one basket is always a risky strat-
along the Keystone XL route, offering them money for the right to egy. Because virtually all our modern technologies and 561

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