Natural gas leaking from an aging and increasingly compromised distribution infrastructure costs Massachusetts consumers nearly $40 million annually and significantly contributes to ongoing environmental destruction wrought by greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, according to a new white paper issued recently the Conservation Law Foundation.

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From the CLF report:

Every day, thousands of methane leaks are actively releasing one of the most potent greenhouse gas emissions into the air in Massachusetts. Under our current regulations, we do not have an accurate accounting of these emissions, ratepayers cannot easily determine how much of their bill is going towards LAUF, and companies have no incentive to repair leaks unless they pose an immediate hazard. Massachusetts can and should take swift, direct ac- tion to change this state of affairs and bring fugitive emissions from distribution pipelines under control.

Methane leaks as mapped across the City of Boston by Boston University Professor Nathan Phillips. Phillips and his colleagues identified 3,356 leaks with methane concentrations exceeding up to 15 times the global background level.

“Every year, millions of tons of powerful global warming causing gases are lost through aging, leaky pipes – and yet there’s no incentive to fix them. Gas companies are allowed to – and do – pass the cost and risk onto Massachusetts customers,” Shanna Cleveland, CLF Staff Attorney and lead author on the whitepaper, said. “To put this in perspective, these losses are larger than the gains made by the state’s nation-leading gas efficiency programs, and the losses are passed on to customers at a cost of $38.8 million annually.”

You can read the entire CLF report here: CLF_fugitive_emissions_report