Pipelines

When thinking about pipelines, the temptation to revert to one’s native Heideggerianism is almost too great to resist. In a 1955 address, when Heidegger tried to concretize his view of the essence of modern technology asGestell, or “enframing,” he turned to petrochemicals rather than his stock example of hydroelectric DAMS. Under the regime of technology as Gestell, Heidegger says, “Nature becomes a giganticgasolinestation, an energy source for modern technology and industry” (1969, 50). Energy was central to Heidegger’s conception of technology as enframing, in which the world is set upon as standing-reserve, a mode of being “which