Lawmakers call for tighter rules, executive penalties after Massachusetts gas pipeline blasts

摘要

In the wake of deadly explosions and fires in Massachusetts in September, Democratic lawmakers from New England last week castigated executives from the NiSource utility family and criticized federal oversight, calling for stricter safety rules and higher corporate penalties for gas utilities in a public field hearing. Calling federal pipeline safety regulatory standards “alarmingly deficient,” Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts said federal legislators “owe it to the American people to put in place requirements to ensure that no natural gas company is allowed to shortchange safety again.” Senator Elizabeth Warren, also of Massachusetts, echoed her colleague’s sentiments during and after the hearing in Lawrence, Massachusetts — one of the three communities hit by deadly explosions caused by over-pressurization on NiSource utility Columbia Gas of Massachusetts’ system. “This industry has proven that safety is not its top priority,” Warren told the hearing. “If they won’t do what is right, we should make sure the laws and regulations compel them to do what is right.”