National Grid Customers Lose Gas Service In Westerly, Rhode Island
More than 1,600 National Grid customers in Westerly, R.I. recently endured several days without heat and hot water just before Christmas due to a problem with a utility gas pipeline, according to a report by Bloomberg Businessweek.
Many of the affected customers lost gas for more than two days, and at least one business owner said that National Grid should provide compensation for the business losses that he sustained. National Grid, that supplies both Natural Gas and Electricity was already under fire for their poor response to electric outages following the October 29th snow storm, with many customers in New England remaining without power for a week or more. This incident further illustrates Utility companies' poor track record in providing services to their customers.
National Grid says crews went door to door in Westerly on Dec. 22, 2011, to close off natural gas meters of 1,600 customers as it worked on a distribution problem, according to the report. After repairing the pipeline problems, some homes had to wait to have gas service restored because the occupants didn't answer the door when technicians re-visited, according to a story in the New London Day. Utility gas technicians left tags with a number for homeowners to call to have their pilot lights relit.
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Media Details Gas Leaks in Boston While Robert Kennedy Slams the Natural Gas Industry
Following a Boston Globe report recently on natural gas leaks in and around Boston, a Boston University publication has done an extensive piece on the problem. To read Fueling Global Warming - Not Homes, follow this link.
And Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an environmental activist and president of the Waterkeeper Alliance, recently criticized the natural gas industry for resisting public disclosure of information and opposing reasonable regulation. Writing for the Huffington Post, Kennedy took natural gas producers to task for attacking the New York Times over a recent string of articles about natural gas drilling.
"Superb investigative journalism by the New York Times has brought the paper under attack by the natural gas industry," Kennedy wrote. "That campaign of intimidation and obfuscation has been orchestrated by top shelf players" and "the industry's worst bottom feeders."
Calling himself "an early optimist on natural gas," Kennedy wrote that he once thought natural gas could help ease the country's dependence on coal and destructive coal mining practices. "My caveat was that the natural gas industry and government regulators needed to act responsibly to protect the environment, safeguard communities from irresponsible practices and to candidly inform the public about the true risks and benefits of shale extraction gas. The opposite has happened. "The industry's worst actors have successfully battled reasonable regulation, stifled public disclosure while bending compliant government regulators to engineer exceptions to existing environmental rules. Captive agencies and political leaders have obligingly reduced already meager enforcement resources and helped propagate the industry's deceptive economic projections," Kennedy wrote. "As a result, public skepticism toward the industry and its government regulators is at a record high."