PUC’s Have Fined Utilities for Employee Errors, Should the PUC’s Now Need to Become More Concerned about the Growing Safety Problems Associated with Natural Gas Theft?
What are the PUC’s doing about enforcing safety associated with natural gas thieves using everything from garden hoses with clamps, to the installation of underground meter bypass lines installed of who knows what material with questionable number of leaks from new pipe joints?
Perhaps the search for gas leaks from piping installed by thieves has been solved, but as far back as 1984, Jeff Flieshman of The Morning Call reported, “To reduce the number of natural gas line explosions for the remainder of the winter, the state Public Utility Commission yesterday ordered gas utilities to conduct searches for gas leaks 12 hours a day, seven days a week. The move comes in the wake of seven major gas line explosions that have occurred in Pennsylvania since Jan. 10. The explosions have resulted in four deaths and 15 injuries. Yesterday morning a fire believed to have been caused by a natural gas explosion destroyed three homes and a store front in South Philadelphia.”
Has the problem gone away or is it getting worse?
Just because DTE Energy in Michigan was the first to realize the natural gas theft problem was far greater than they ever imagined, shouldn’t the other natural gas utilities/local distribution companies be rushing to make sure their customers are safe from improper installation of natural gas connections by thieves?
Let us know what you think!
Related hyperlinks:
PUC Weighs $160,000 Settlement with UGI over Lehigh County Natural Gas Explosion