WORKERS WORLD - Puerto Rico Pipeline

Pipelines create profits, perils by Betsey Piette Jan 8, 2012 10:59 AM

"The potential threat posed by the rapidly expanding natural gas industry is being felt round the globe. U.S. companies including Halliburton, Chesapeake Energy, Shell and Exxon Mobil stand to profit at the expense of local residents and environments.

Puerto Rico’s Gov. Luis Fortuno is promoting a $450 billion project to build a 92-mile natural gas pipeline, dubbed Vía Verde or the Green Way. The island of Puerto Rico is just 110 miles long.

Opponents call it the Vía de la Muerte — Death Route — because it goes through the center of the island, crossing forests and more than 235 rivers and impacting 32 endangered species. It also presents a risk to over 200,000 people because much of the area is seismically active. Plans call for a 150-foot right of way to be cleared through the forests in the interior mountains. (Democracy Now, June 9) Demonstrations against the pipeline have rocked Puerto Rico."