BOSTON — Its blue flame heats meals and homes but natural gas also poses potential dangers to Massachusetts residents and communities, said state Rep. Lori Ehrlich.
The Swampscott and Marblehead legislator and seven colleagues drafted legislation strengthening standards dictating how utilities repair gas pipelines and respond to emergencies like the one that left thousands of Merrimack Valley residents homeless in 2018.
Ehrlich said the legislation builds on previous bills she sponsored in 2014 and 2016 creating a state gas leaks classification system and a repair mandate for serious leaks detected across Massachusetts.
“I have been working in this space for almost a decade, and the time has come for sweeping changes to how we heat our homes, businesses, and schools in Massachusetts,” she said in a statement outlining the legislation.
One of the bills filed by Ehrlich with other legislators requires the state Department of Public Utilities to create a standard training model and requirements for all gas and electric companies.
“Currently, while workers are required to meet federal requirements, companies can create their own training systems that can cause discrepancies when workers must respond collaboratively to gas disasters,” Ehrlich said.
Two legislators from communities hit hard by the 2018 disaster — state Rep. Frank Moran of Lawrence and state Sen. Barry Finegold of Andover — filed legislation along with Ehrlich requiring companies to credit all charges for each billing cycle in which a customer was without natural gas service for a period of 24 hours or more, requires a public utility company to call on other public utility companies in an emergency, and tightens existing gas leaks repair requirements both generally and in cases near school zones, and more.
A third bill strengthens state law concerning the repair of gas leaks across Massachusetts, mandates the use of winter patrols, and requires greater transparency by both gas companies and the Department of Public Utilities in how gas leak information is conveyed to customers, state and local officials.
The bill disallows gas companies from charging ratepayers for lost and unaccounted for gas and requires that gas companies inform fire departments and law enforcement when leaks are identified.
The four bills now await a report from the Legislature’s Joint Committee Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy.
