Lowell City Council endorses fixing the gas pipeline leaks

One of the key arguments of the anti-Spectra pipeline group is that if the gas companies fixed the leaks in the existing supply lines that would provide about 30% of the supply currently being 'lost'. 

"On Tuesday, the Lowell City Council passed a resolution in support of state legislation to address gas leaks! Gas leaks are costly for consumers and terrible for the climate: leaking gas pipelines emit methane, an extremely powerful greenhouse gas, directly into the atmosphere. 

Lowell's resolution is in support of H. 2870 and H. 2871, new pieces of state legislation that would help reduce gas leaks and ensure that consumers are not charged for leaking gas. Congrats to all the folks in 350 Mass Lowell who worked hard to make this resolution happen!"

Reference to the motion was also reported by Richard Howe

"Joint motion by Mayor Kennedy and Councilor Elliott to support resolution on bill pending in state legislature on natural gas leaks. Registered to speak is State Senator Jamie Eldridge who thanks the council for allowing him to speak. He wants to provide some context to this bill. Says Tom Golden is a strong advocate for this bill. Last session, the legislature took up the issue of the hundreds of thousands of gas leaks in Massachusetts, many of which occur in older cities like Lowell. 

This bill would require utilities to better document these leaks and to develop a plan to remedy them. Portions of the bill did not pass during the last legislative session so they are back again this year. This would also prohibit utilities from charging the cost of sealing these leaks back to their users. He appreciates the council’s consideration of this resolution and says the council’s passage of it would send a strong message to the rest of the legislature."

The full context of the Jan 5th Council meeting in Lowell can be found here
http://www.richardhowe.com/2016/01/05/lowell-city-council-meeting-january-5-2016/

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From the Twitterverse!

Huge congrats to @350MALowell -- their gas leaks resolution just passed!

— 350Mass (@350Mass) January 6, 2016

Are there really gas leaks? Yup, and they can be found!

We found gas leaks all along the #westroxburylateralpipeline route today, including M&R stn. @davabel @universalhub pic.twitter.com/s1WMwb2gxt

— Nathan Phillips (@nathanpboston) January 4, 2016

leaks along the west roxbury lateral pipeline

The presentation to the Franklin Town Council on Jan 6 can be found here
http://www.franklinmatters.org/2016/01/live-reporting-presentation-on-spectra.html