SHALE BOOM

摘要

As An Engineer Who Specializes in natural-gas pipeline safety, Richard Kuprewicz has never been more in demand. Amid unprecedented production of natural gas and crude oil in the United States alone, Kuprewicz is busy fielding questions from contractors, engineers, federal regulators and the media about the safety of the pipes carrying all that gas underground. "It's as it should be," says Kuprewicz, the president of Accufacts, a pipeline safety consulting firm in Washington state. "There's all this drilling, there's all [this natural-gas] production, obviously there's a need for the construction of new pipeline and improvements to old ones," adds Kuprewicz, who also visited the aftermath of the deadly 2010 explosion of a natural-gas pipeline in San Bruno, Calif., which killed eight and leveled 38 homes. "Safety consultants, inspectors, regulators— they should have their hands full right now."