Moving Energy Infrastructure Away From Gulf Storms a Noristarter

摘要

History, convenience and necessity combined to create the largest concentration of energy infrastructure anywhere in the world on the US Gulf Coast. And it will continue expanding despite monster hurricanes like Harvey, which, a New York Times article opined, "exposed a downside: vulnerability to storms that experts say are becoming more extreme because of climate change." The 300-mile swath of refineries and petrochemical plants between Corpus Christi to Beaumont-which consume large quantities of natural gas - certainly took a hit from the late-August storm. Fully 20% of US refining capacity alone was flooded by Harvey's storm surge and unprecedented rains, and a week later vital ports and waterways were still struggling to recover (NGW Sep.4' 17). Such mayhem naturally casts doubt on the clustering's future viability because of the inevitability of this happening over and over again.