Lincoln Mothers Out Front Gas Circle members (left to right) Staci Montori, Kate Dahmen, Trish O’Hagan, Sue Michener, Carol Michener Card. Missing from photo: Emily Haslett, DJ Mitchell, Jackie Lenth and Stacey Parks. (Photo from Mothers Out Front – Lincoln)
As one of its first actions to take on local and global environmental challenges, the new Lincoln chapter of the group Mothers Out Front invites residents to a rally and artistic event on Sunday, May 7 to raise awareness of natural gas leaks in town.
The event starts at 1 p.m. at the Lincoln Town Office Building with a welcome address and kickoff rally. Teams of “taggers” will then disperse to mark over 45 known gas leaks throughout Lincoln and hang doorknob information sheets to alert neighbors about the harmful and costly effects of leaking natural gas. Anyone interested in joining is welcome; please email LincolnMOF@gmail.com to sign up for a tagging team.
Natural gas is 95 percent methane, a potent greenhouse gas that speeds up climate change, harms trees, and is linked to health issues including asthma. The Cambridge nonprofit Home Energy Efficiency Team maps gas leaks in more than 200 Massachusetts cities and towns. There are more than 20,000 gas leaks in Massachusetts;Mothers Out front cites a recent Boston University survey of 100 of those leaks that were identified seven as “super-emitters” and 15 as potentially explosive.
Utilities charge consumers for the leaked gas they never use, and the Lincoln campaign is part of a statewide movement to enact gas leaks legislation. A law signed in 2016 requires gas companies to address “environmentally significant” leaks, or the ones leaking the most gas, while other pending legislation would pass the cost of lost gas from consumer bills to the utilities over a period of time. Senate Bill 1845 is currently before the state legislature’s Joint Committee on Telecommunications, Utilities and Energy co-chaired by Lincoln’s state senator, Michael Barrett.