Weeks after a ruptured pipeline spewed enough natural gas to power 40,000 home for a day in Ringgold, Louisiana, Energy Transfer has yet to comment about its latest environmental mishap. The gathering pipeline, located just 40 miles east of Shreveport, apparently began leaking the morning of July 22. As of this writing, an estimated 8.2 million cubic feet of natural gas was emitted before it was shut off. The company and officials still don’t know what caused the leak, though its impact was immediate. As the Times-Picayune reports, 10 people were forced from their homes and part of Louisiana Highway 4 was closed owing to the leak.
Wasted natural gas is certainly frustrating for consumers burdened by high energy costs and concerns over grid reliability, but it’s even worse for the environment. Bloomberg found that this leak alone was responsible for a massive methane plume generating emissions equivalent to the annual emissions of about 2,600 vehicles. In an email to Bloomberg, a Louisiana Department of Natural Resources official said that Energy Transfer had “sent a section of the ruptured pipe to a metallurgist to be evaluated” but had no further updates.