Environmental writer-researcher Mina Hamilton has written a series of articles exploring aspects of so-called 'natural' gas through hydraulic fracturing ("fracking"). they explore: related pipeline and compressor station construction and operation; possible gas exports via liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals; and a critique of fracked gas-fueled combined-cycle power plants. Her newest piece presents the problems with the bill S. 2012, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act.

We are happy to have helped edit and make these papers available for easy download. They are presented here, starting with the most recent, from October, 2016, printed here in full:

An Open Letter to Senators Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Patrick Leahy(D-VT), Diane Feinstein (D-CA), Ed Markey(D-Mass) and Benjamin Cardin(D-Md)
October 28, 2016

Dear Honorable Senators,

Thank you for your letter of October 13 to President Barack Obama in which you asked the President to support the Standing Rock Sioux Nation, other Native American peoples, and concerned citizens in their call for a "complete environmental and cultural" review of the Dakota Access Pipeline.

This letter is to ask for your help regarding a related matter, S. 2012, the North American Energy Security and Infrastructure Act (formerly the Energy Policy Modernization Act).  S. 2012, as it is now written, will make the kind of comprehensive environmental review you are requesting for the Dakota Access Pipeline impossible for dozens of other gas-and-oil pipeline and infrastructure projects. 
(download full letter)

National Parks and More, Threatened by Fracked Gas Part 1, by Mina Hamilton
August 3, 2016
"Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park, Grand Canyon National Park, Great Smoky Mountains National Park. These along with other treasured park icons are in the crosshairs of S.2012, the national Energy Policy Modernization Act."...
(download pdf, 4p., 132 kb)

The Gas Industry's Dark Cloud: Methane on My Mind By Mina Hamilton
March 11, 2016
"For decades the message has been clear: Natural gas is well - natural. Clean. Green. And worlds apart from dirty, climate-destroying coal. That was before Aliso Canyon."
(download pdf, 3p., 121 kb)

More Than A Pipeline, it’s a Toxic Industrial Infrastructure
(updated version, February 2016, 4p., 110kb)
A little known aspect of modern, high-pressure, gas pipelines is that they require large compressor stations.  These stations help concentrate and move the pressurized gas along quickly and efficiently. As compressor stations release large amounts of methane, they contribute significantly to global warming.  They are noisy, humming 24/7, and are subject to dangerous explosions and fires.  At public meetings and during the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission application process, gas pipeline companies have not revealed the number, location and size of planned compressor stations.

Fracked Gas on Steroids: gas-fired power plants no bridge to the future
(July 29, 2015; 4 p., 146kb)

"General Electric, Siemens, the Spanish multinational Iberdrola and a bunch of privately-held energy companies - all are making millions in the rush to build fracked gas power plants.  Supposedly they provide clean, green energy, and are often touted as the answer to climate destroying, coal-fired plants.  ... unfortunately, these fracked gas electric generating plants popping up all over the map have their own set of serious problems."

Behind the local face of Berkshire Gas: a multinational giant is trafficking in fracked gas (June 2015, 4p., 121kb) 

On June 2, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a merger key to western Massachusetts: the take-over of Berkshire Gas by the Spanish conglomerate Iberdrola...

Liquefied Natural Gas Terminals: Another Sick Link in the Fossil Fuel Economy?  (June 2015, 5p., 142kb)

It's all in the name of making the US an energy exporter - using the extreme and environmentally destructive energy source, fracked gas.  Eco-writer and longtime activist Mina Hamilton reveals the "brilliant tactic" that makes a mockery of the permitting process for natural gas exports...

More than a Pipeline... the reality of compressor stations
(February 2015, 4p., 124kb)

First the shale, then the fracking, but then the gas must be moved... resulting in citizen resistance to both this investment in a fossil fuel future, destruction of land and natural resources -- and more. Here energy expert Mina Hamilton takes on an important -- and dangerous -- part of gas pipeline projects less known than the laying of pipe, etc.