LVL DEF AND NO DPU REG

What does that mean?!Translation: HEET has persuaded ALL the gas companies in Massachusetts to start identifying the largest gas leaks this summer so they can start to be fixed, cutting methane emissions significantly.  

Even though our Department of Public Utilities has not yet enacted regulations on how to address these “environmentally significant” leaks, utilities are taking steps to follow our Shared Action Plan.  So far, they’ve agreed on how crews will collect and report data using our scientifically proven method of identifying the worst leaks.

“With seven companies, all with different procedures, it frequently takes several meetings to reach consensus on any issue, but in this case, it was an easy yes.”                    —Marty Poulin, Columbia Gas

Now all utilities are prepping for the work season that starts in April to select large leaks for repair. HEET will be on the streets too, checking for accuracy and verifying results.“It’s an incredible achievement to craft a leak extent definition that doesn’t conflict with the many federal guidelines gas companies have to follow,” said Audrey Schulman, President of HEET, grateful to Marty and his colleague Meggan Birmingham who drafted the definition. “That said,” she acknowledged, “it had to be a looser definition than we wanted. HEET will have to pick up the slack to ensure consistency across utilities, to make sure they’re all reliably finding and fixing the biggest leaks.”Onward to step two!