On September 14, the Merrimack Valley faced an unprecedented tragedy - a series of “Armageddon-like” gas explosions that killed a teenager, injured ten others, and ignited fires in about 40 homes displacing many more.

Climate advocates have been warning about the dangers of natural gas for years, and while this explosion is tragic, it was not unforeseeable. We hereby call for Governor Baker--who has previously pushed for the public to subsidize massive new gas infrastructure expansions--to immediately issue a freeze on all new natural gas construction in the state until after thorough investigations both of what happened in this situation and of the many vulnerabilities in our existing system are completed.

We also call on Governor Baker to express his immediate and unconditional support for National Grid to end the lock-out of the USW Local 12003 union so that these skilled workers can return to the important task of cleaning up the tens of thousands of existing leaks in our state’s natural gas infrastructure.”