In 2023, a natural gas explosion in a West Reading chocolate factory killed seven people and demolished multiple structures. During the federal investigation into the explosion, some inspection reports were withheld due to Pennsylvania law, I am looking to remove this hurdle from future investigations. 
 
Several employees reported that they smelled natural gas prior to the explosion, thus the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) requested five years’ worth of inspection reports from UGI Utilities, Inc. However, the Public Utility Commission (PUC) was obligated to follow procedures established in Act 156 of 2006 and was unable to provide these documents to federal investigators. The PUC cited that Act 156 enables them to refuse to share these inspection reports because they contain “confidential security information.” Thus, this statute prevented federal investigators from obtaining vital information needed to determine the cause of the explosion and how a similar disaster can be prevented in the future.

Statutory obstacles must be removed to better enable federal or state agencies, including the NTSB, to properly investigate any incident involving a Pennsylvania public utility company. To do so, it is crucial for the Commonwealth’s state agencies to work closely with other governmental agencies to better identify problems, find solutions, and hopefully prevent similar tragedies from occurring.

I hope that you will join me in supporting this legislation to increase transparency and prevent the PUC from withholding important information from federal or state agencies.
 

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 0259: P.L.1435, No.156