Plugging the Pipeline: Realizing the Value of Natural Gas in the 1930s United States

Questions of value lie at the heart of current debates over capital–nature relations in nature–society geography. The moments of valorization and realization of value occur within the broader circulation process of capital, yet in nature–society geography we tend to focus on the nature–capital relations at the stage of productive capital when labor valorizes commodities. The stage of commodity capital, when consumers realize value through the transformation of commodities into money, can also be a major driver for capital–nature relations. In the case of natural gas in the 1930s United States, the circulation of capital was blocked for independent producers, leading them to vent methane (a potent greenhouse gas) directly into the atmosphere. Four vertically integrated firms—the Power Trust—used their power over interstate gas pipelines to block competitors' commodities from reaching markets. The Power Trust was ensuring that the value of its commodity capital was successfully realized, by blocking its competitors' gas from exchange and value realization. Its competitors—the independents—found themselves with no ability to realize the value of their gas and opted instead to dump it into the atmosphere through the process of gasoline stripping. The importance of realization within the wider capital circulation process is not only a historical–geographical problem. Modern utilities and energy companies are compelled to realize the value crystallized in fossil fuels, despite the availability and superiority of renewable energy.