A group of climate action advocates in Newton, led by Mothers Out Front/Newton, is asking the City Council’s Public Facilities Committee for more transparency about National Grid’s gas-pipeline-replacement projects and for gas-leak repairs that are less disruptive, trenchless, lower-cost, yet as-safe. The group is concerned that Committee has been permitting National Grid’s projects for new high-pressure plastic pipes that are more costly instead of a strategic repair of Newton’s hundreds of leaks focusing on the high-volume gas leaks.
The group has received no response to its previous letters calling for a city-wide plan to evaluate the risks and costs of National Grid’s pipeline replacements before further approvals. It cites increasing social and financial costs of extreme weather damage, claiming the new pipes extend an obsolete fossil fuel system at the rate payer’s expense. It calls instead for making much less costly leak repairs and retrofitting buildings for clean renewable non-combustible energy.
The group’s earlier letters stating its position are:
- A 10/7/22 proposal asking the Public Facilities Committee to change the information required from National Grid in its application for Grants of Location for pipeline replacement projects and
- A 9/17/22 letter about an alternative, trenchless, durable, as-safe, less disruptive and lower cost alternative pipeline maintenance method.
