Fueling Inequity: Geospatial Analyses Reveal Racial Patterns in Vulnerability to Natural Gas Pipeline Impacts in North Carolina

As the United States (US) has increased its domestic production of natural gas, transmission pipeline infrastructure continues to expand. Previous research highlights the environmental justice implications of this situation in the US, including fugitive methane emissions and the disproportionate concentration of pipelines in counties with high social vulnerability. However, gaps in publicly-available data make it difficult to understand the intersection of social factors, pipeline prevalence, and race, particularly in rural areas and at community-level spatial scales. This study begins to address this gap by examining the relationship between natural gas pipeline prevalence and demographics at the census block group level. This study uses North Carolina as a case study due to the state's dramatic increase in natural gas consumption driving an increase in pipeline infrastructure in recent years. This work highlights two critical findings: First, African American and American Indian people make up a disproportionately large share of the population living in block groups characterized by high social vulnerability and high densities of natural gas pipelines. Second, our main finding is insensitive to the threshold used to determine disproportionality, suggesting these results are robust. These data demonstrate a need for more equitable methods for energy infrastructure planning and maintenance. These results underscore the need for geospatial analysts to critically evaluate their methods for identifying disparities.