Steve Lynch: “First of all, I want to come to the floor and say thank you to Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio for their…”

“First of all, I want to come to the floor and say thank you to Chairman Shuster and Ranking Member DeFazio for their great work in bringing a long-term transportation bill to the floor. They need to really be congratulated on the work that they have done in negotiating the finer points of this bill, which I think is nearly perfect, with one small flaw, which I will attempt to cure with my amendment. Madam Chair, in my district and in many districts across the United States, we are dealing with a situation where high-pressure natural gas lines are being extended and expanded in some urban areas and some rural areas. I have three areas in my district that are impacted severely in some respects: the town of Dedham, the town of Weymouth, and the neighborhood of West Roxbury. I think the neighborhood of West Roxbury offers the most clear example of what my concern is. In the neighborhood of West Roxbury, we have an active gravel quarry. It is located a matter of yards away from a residential area. You could throw a baseball from the blasting zone of the quarry to the residential homes next door. You have got kids there. You have got schools there. It is a densely settled population there and is a beautiful neighborhood. FERC, in its wisdom, has authorized the placement of a high-pressure gas line that runs through the active blast zone adjacent to the residential area where my constituents live and are raising their families, where their kids go to bed at night.…”