Ed Markey

The standard which is applied right now is inadequate. There should be a more prescriptive, a more detailed set of regulations

Boosterism leads to complacency and complacency leads to disaster.

Your powerful statement is something that we'll always remember and I think it is very important for us to hear your story because that will now help everyone to understand the importance of the hearing which we are about to have and why…

What we saw in Lawrence and what we are continuing to see from the industry is unacceptable.

Instead of choosing safety, you chose savings. Instead of choosing action, you chose to cut corners.

This $2 million fine just seems absolutely pathetic as a discouragement so that real safety standards are adopted.

The agency is the poster child for an agency which has been captured by the industry which it is supposed to regulate.

Saving money as a way of increasing profits but at the expense of safety leads to disaster.

The entire company failed. The buck does stop with you.

Thank you for inviting the NTSB to testify this morning about the NTSB's investigation into the September fires and explosion here in the Merrimack Valley.

In the year 2018, people should be able to be confident that they can live in a home where their gas lines don't explode.

Gas distribution companies need to put safety above speed and the public above politics.

Not only did this company not prioritize safety, it appears as if safety was simply an afterthought.

Will you make them 100 percent financially whole?

It has to discourage Columbia or any other company from ever turning a blind eye to the safety problems.

To have a safety decision made by an unqualified engineer is unacceptable.

We appreciate the opportunity to testify today on behalf of Columbia Gas of Massachusetts and NiSource.

I look forward to working with you on this issue and helping the people of the Merrimack Valley as we continue to cope with the aftermath, ensure safety and comfort, and restore this community's confidence.

I believe Columbia Gas has a responsibility to make this community whole and to restore the public trust.

Do you commit to adopting every one of these urgent safety measures now?

What happened on September 13 was not inevitable. It was preventable.

That is like saying it is the responsibility of the fox to make sure that the hen house is safe.

It is time for Columbia Gas and NiSource to answer for this disaster.

We owe it to the American people to put in place requirements to ensure that no natural gas company is allowed to shortchange safety ever again.

Columbia Gas should be ashamed.