Boston University’s School of Public Health and the Institute for Global Sustainability (IGS) have released a new study that reveals the “sprawling energy infrastructure network that’s largely hidden from view and in close proximity to millions of Americans. They found that 46.6 million people in the contiguous United States, many in cities, live within about a mile of at least one piece of fossil fuel infrastructure—and that it could be putting their health at risk. The findings were published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.”
Among the findings:
“Fossil fuels release pollutants into the air when extracted from the ground and then burned for energy—but those processes are just the first and last moments, respectively, in their five-stage journey. Between the initial extraction site and the final power-generating facility are a series of steps along the supply chain: oil and gas are refined to remove impurities, held in storage facilities, and transported from place to place.
According to the study, this infrastructure is not distributed evenly across the nation. Almost 90 percent of the population near end use, transportation, refining, and storage infrastructure is found in urban areas. Predominantly non-white groups are disproportionately exposed across all stages of the energy supply chain.
The BU team found almost 21 million Americans live near end-use facilities, including power plants. More than 20 million are within a mile of extraction sites, like oil and gas wells. Storage facilities—like underground gas storage facilities and petroleum product terminals—have more than 6 million nearby residents. And many Americans, about 9 million, live in proximity to multiple types of infrastructure.
While a growing body of research suggests that living near extraction and end-use facilities increases the risk of adverse birth outcomes and asthma, much less is known about the health effects of living near mid-supply chain infrastructure.”
Read the full study.