Natural gas utilities have for decades resisted installing basic safety equipment that could have saved lives and prevented untold millions of dollars in property damage when explosion occurs, despite repeated recommendations by federal oversight agencies.

The industry views safety valves as if it was studying an actuarial chart, Theofanous said. It studies a time period of five years, sees one death resulting from a natural gas explosion, and claims that safety valves are unnecessary and expensive. Industry representatives say that installing valves on 300,000 miles of transmission lines could cost upwards of $370 million and don