Massachusetts Sierra Club: gas leaks legislation

[Woll, Jr., Edward]

Another bill for your consideration. 

 

SUPPORT THE NEW CONSUMER GAS LEAKS BILL

 

The Massachusetts Sierra Club  helped draft and Representative Lori A. Ehrlich and Senator James B. Eldridge are  the lead legislative sponsors for a consumer gas protection bill that was filed on January 16, 2014.  It seeks to stop you having to pay for leaked gas,  stop leaks and mitigate the need for more pipelines. You means any homeowner, municipality, business and the state.

We would like to get as many legislative co-sponsors for it as possible signed on before January 30. Your help is needed.  Would you and your friends contact your legislators to sign on as a co-sponsor before January 30 by asking them to contact the Representative Ehrlich’s and Senator Eldridge’s offices to do that.

Gas leaks are much more serious than we thought. You might have seen Thursday’s (Jan. 22) front page Globe article, which is at  http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/01/22/natural-gas-leaks-boston-area-are-far-more-extensive-than-thought/5BykQrnaGRr2XLtxpHqLIM/story.html 

 

The bill is House Docket 1173 and is attached. The summary is as follows: 

 

An Act relative to protecting consumers of gas and electricity from paying for leaked and unaccounted for gas

 

SUMMARY

 

The bill protects ratepayers and customers who buy and consume gas and electricity from paying for unaccounted-for-gas lost through leaks and otherwise by precluding the regulated Providers from including in the rate base the cost of unaccounted-for-gas and the cost of reducing or remedying those losses. The cost of unaccounted-for-gas that is passed on to regulated Providers by upstream Providers are also encompassed and excluded from the rate base. The bill permits all Providers to recover the cost of remedying unaccounted-for-gas from the sale of the recovered gas. The bill therefore provides a sound economic incentive for gas transportation, distribution and storage companies and public utilities to mitigate leaks and other sources of loss to recover the gas and sell it in order to meet the bill’s requirements, while protecting ratepayers and customers from expenses that they have no ability to control or reduce. Ancillary benefits of the bill are that it promotes the development of technology, engineering and procedures to reduce leakage and losses of gas to a de minimis level and that it is consistent with the goals of the Global Warming Solutions Act.

 

Its petitioners are:

 

Name:	District/Address:
Lori A. Ehrlich	8th Essex
Stephen Kulik	1st Franklin
Chris Walsh	6th Middlesex
Louis L. Kafka	8th Norfolk
Denise Provost	27th Middlesex
Kenneth I. Gordon	21st Middlesex
Josh S. Cutler	6th Plymouth
Stephen L. DiNatale	3rd Worcester
Barbara L'Italien	Second Essex and Middlesex
Dennis A. Rosa	4th Worcester

 

Representative Ehrlich got passed last year’s safety gas bill and this year’s closes the rest of the leaks. Last year’s bill’s 47 co-sponsors who are still in the legislature are (the one’s marked by a light bulb are not and you should contact their successors) :

 

Sponsors (47): Rep. Andrews, Denise (D); Rep. Atkins, Cory (D); Rep. Balser, Ruth (D); Rep. Basile, Carlo (D); Rep. Benson, Jennifer (D); Rep. Brady, Michael (D); Rep. Cantwell, James (D); Rep. Conroy, Thomas (D); Rep. Coppinger, Edward (D); Rep. DiNatale, Stephen (D); Rep. Dwyer, James (D); Rep. Dykema, Carolyn (D); Rep. Fennell, Robert (D); Rep. Ferrante, Ann-Margaret (D); Rep. Fox, Gloria (D); Rep. Garballey, Sean (D); Rep. Garry, Colleen (D); Rep. Harrington, Sheila (R); Rep. Hecht, Jonathan (D); Former Rep. Henriquez, Carlos (D) ; Sen. Humason, Donald (R); Rep. Kafka, Louis (D); Rep. Kaufman, Jay (D); Rep. Khan, Kay (D); Rep. Kocot, Peter (D); Sen. Lewis, Jason (D); Rep. Linsky, David (D); Rep. Malia, Elizabeth (D); Rep. Murphy, James (D); Rep. Sannicandro, Tom (D); Rep. Scibak, John (D); Rep. Smizik, Frank (D); Rep. Smola, Todd (R); Rep. Story, Ellen (D); Rep. Walsh, Chris (D); Former Rep. Walsh, Martin (D) ; Former Rep. Walz, Martha (D) ; Rep. Haddad, Patricia (D); Sen. Brownsberger, William (D); Former Sen. Clark, Katherine (D) ; Sen. Eldridge, James (D); Sen. Jehlen, Patricia (D); Sen. McGee, Thomas (D); Sen. Rosenberg, Stanley (D); Sen. Tarr, Bruce (R); Rep. Heroux, Paul (D); Sen. Barrett, Michael (D)

 

 

Ed Woll

 

 
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