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US 'lacks clear picture' of energy supply chain risks

The cost of US energy supply accidents over the past decade are estimated to exceed $50bn, mostly from oil spills and electric power outages, academics have estimated.

The estimate is based on recently completed analysis of accidents in the production and delivery of energy in the US in the wake of the BP Gulf oil spill and gas pipeline explosions in Pennsylvania, California and Texas.

A class of 24 engineering students in Carnegie Mellon University's departments of Engineering and Public Policy (EPP) and Social and Decision Sciences (SDS) compiled the report, entitled Learning from Energy Supply Catastrophes. It concluded that the US lacks a clear and complete picture of the human, environmental and economic risks of producing and delivering oil, natural gas, coal, electricity and other forms of energy.

The study also recommends that the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), a branch of the Energy Department, compile and publish factual information on the consequences of accidents in each energy supply industry. Key data would include the annual number of fatalities, injuries, barrels of oil spilled and various other measures relevant to each industry.

"Our goal was to assess the full cost of accidents in the US energy supply chain in terms of their human, environmental and economic impacts and to see whether some forms of energy are safer than others," said Kyle Siler-Evans, a Ph.D. student in EPP and one of three student project managers.

"We found that safety is the single most important factor affecting the public's preference for different types of energy," said Margaret Hamlin, an SDS senior and one of the student researchers who conducted a survey of public attitudes.

"So investments and regulations to further improve safety and reduce the number of accidents are essential as we look ahead to future energy choices."