According to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT), natural gas and petroleum liquids pipelines are the safest method of transporting energy. For example, electric current is responsible for more than 100 deaths a year during its transmission to the home. In contrast, in 1995, the most recent year for which data is available, only 15 pipeline accident fatalities were reported, according to DOT’s National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).

Natural gas goes from the pipeline into either underground storage facilities or directly into underground distribution lines into customers’ homes. Safety statistics for these lines are included in the pipeline statistics maintained by the NTSB.

Fuel oil used for heating is delivered to its local storage facility through pipeline or tanker truck or barge, and then delivered to homes primarily by truck. To obtain safety data on this delivery system, it would be necessary to calculate traffic and other related accidents associated to make a meaningful analysis, and such segregated data are not available. As a result, no direct safety comparisons can be made between the delivery systems for fuel oil and other home energies.

Rail transportation, the primary method of transporting coal used for generating electricity, causes about 7,600 deaths per year, but trains carrying coal are not isolated in the statistics. Similarly, other fuels used to generate electricity would also have to be isolated by the system used to deliver them to the generating facility, and such data are not available. If tabulated, these incidents would be in addition to the incidents occurring in the transmission of the electricity after it has been generated.