[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 182 (Wednesday, November 8, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1530]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




     RECOGNIZING THE RACHEL CARSON COUNCIL'S ``BLAST ZONE'' REPORT

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                           HON. JAMIE RASKIN

                              of maryland

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 8, 2017

  Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the important work 
of the Rachel Carson Council (RCC). Based in Bethesda, Maryland, the 
RCC seeks to honor and promote the environmental ethic of former Silver 
Spring resident Rachel Carson by linking environmental, health, and 
social policy solutions ``with the goal of building a more just, 
sustainable, and peaceful future.''
   The RCC has documented the political and economic forces propelling 
the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, while suggesting safer alternative 
solutions to build a clean and reliable energy portfolio. The Atlantic 
Coast Pipeline is a proposed $5.5 billion, 600-mile project to move the 
supply of natural gas fractured from the Marcellus and Utica Shale 
Basins in Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania to meet growing energy 
demand in Virginia and North Carolina.
   The RCC recently released a comprehensive report entitled, ``Blast 
Zone: Natural Gas and the Atlantic Coast Pipeline.'' This report 
highlights the dangers of transporting natural gas and the underlying 
problems with existing natural gas fracturing methods, and it also 
questions the demand impetus for the project itself. Moreover, the 
report outlines serious attendant environmental and health risks, which 
they allege disproportionately affect minority communities and people 
living below the poverty line. For example, the RCC notes that in North 
Carolina, 30 out of 42 census tracts within one mile of the pipeline 
route have higher minority levels, and 27 out of 42 tracts have higher 
poverty levels than the state average.
   Natural gas has been touted as a bridge fuel, but RCC argues that 
methane leakage rates range from 3.8 percent to 12 percent, with 
methane nearly 100 times more effective at trapping heat in Earth's 
atmosphere over a 20-year lifecycle. With the methane leakage factored 
into an environmental analysis, RCC concludes that natural gas is even 
worse for the climate than coal, with a leakage rate of above 3.2 
percent.
   The dangers of natural gas extraction and transportation were 
vividly illustrated by California's Aliso Canyon disaster, which spewed 
100,000 tons of methane into the atmosphere over a four-month period 
from 2015 into 2016. Unexpected earthquakes in Oklahoma have been 
attributed to fracking wastewater disposal practices, a bizarre 
development which calls the lifecycle of the process' ecological 
benefits into greater question.
   Mr. Speaker, it is becoming impossible to ignore the imminent peril 
posed by natural gas extraction and transportation. I urge my 
colleagues to review the well-researched ``Blast Zone'' report produced 
by the RCC, and to come together across party lines to develop energy 
efficient policies that will protect our environment, our economy, and 
our collective future.

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