Kennedy Calls for Rapid Repair to Gas Pipeline Leaks

From the Office of Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr.: Environment Committee Co-Chair, Senator Ted Kennedy, Jr. (D-Branford), recently led successful Committee passage of S.B. 346, An Act Establishing Parity for Oil and Gas Leak Repairs, a bill that will help ensure that natural gas leaks are quickly identified and repaired, protecting our climate and saving utility customers money. S.B. 346 passed out of the committee with an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote 28-2, and now heads to the senate floor.

Year after year, millions of cubic feet of natural gas leak from gas pipelines throughout Connecticut, destroying our planet with methane, a harmful greenhouse gas, and driving up consumer costs, as ratepayers are forced to pay for lost gas that seeps from faulty utility company pipelines. A recent study found that in the City of Hartford alone, natural gas pipelines leak approximately 43,000 cubic feet per day, or 313 metric tons per year, over 5x greater than utility company estimates, who concede that the average leakage rate for their industry is about 2% of natural gas annually.

Statewide natural gas leakage data is not well documented or understood by either utility companies or the State because under existing Connecticut law, the State’s Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA) only requires utilities to investigate “lost and unaccounted for gas” if the leakage rate exceeds 3%, an exceedingly high allowable standard. Connecticut law also allows gas companies to pass on the cost of lost gas to ratepayers. S.B. 346 changes the law by lowering the gas pipeline maximum allowable leakage rate from 3% to 1%, incentivizing companies to make needed repairs and strengthening their leak detection efforts.

“It is unbelievable to me, in the face of enormous consumer energy costs and the skyrocketing rate of greenhouse gas emissions, that current Connecticut law permits gas utility companies to avoid fixing their pipelines,” said Senator Kennedy. “By allowing such a high rate of gas to leak before utilities are required to make repairs, and by permitting the gas companies to simply pass on the cost of leaked gas to ratepayers, there is absolutely no financial incentive for gas companies to proactively search out leaks and repair their gas lines. For the sake of our planet and in fairness to ratepayers, we have to reduce PURA’s maximum allowable leakage rate from 3% to a very reasonable 1%.”

In her testimony in favor of S.B. 306, Martha Klein, Connecticut Chapter Chair of the Sierra Club, stated “The Sierra Club has been concerned about fracked gas leaks since 2015, when we concluded an objective study measuring gas leaks in the City of Hartford. Methane is 100x stronger than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. We support S.B. 346 because it creates no tolerance for gas leaks and would force an immediate response and rapid repair. This will increase not only the safety of our residents of our state, but benefit our climate and reduce consumer costs, as ratepayers currently pay for lost gas which is leaked.”

Christian Herb, President of the Connecticut Energy Marketers Association (CEMA) also offered support of S.B. 346, viewing the proposal in terms of fairness and parity with the state’s nearly 600 home heating oil delivery companies and 1,400 gas station owners by stating “State law requires that petroleum leaks and spills be reported to the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection and remediated immediately. This double standard is harmful to the environment and independently-owned businesses who compete against the natural gas utilities who are allowed to get away with leaking at will.”

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