{"id":99480,"date":"2026-01-29T06:02:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:02:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99480\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T06:02:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T06:02:07","slug":"pa-house-passes-bipartisan-bills-to-enhance-natural-gas-safety-measures-in-wake-of-deadly-r-m-palmer-explosion-berks-regional-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/99480\/","title":{"rendered":"Pa House passes bipartisan bills to enhance natural gas safety measures in wake of deadly R.M. Palmer explosion | Berks Regional News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>HARRISBURG, Pa. &#8211; The Pennsylvania House passed two bipartisan bills introduced by State Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (D-Berks) aimed at addressing natural gas safety concerns in the wake of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wfmz.com\/news\/area\/berks\/ntsb-issues-final-report-on-2023-r-m-palmer-chocolate-factory-explosion-that-killed-seven\/article_af92c840-061a-417b-abc7-4d34592581ef.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2023 R.M. Palmer chocolate factory explosion<\/a> that killed seven people and injured 10 others.<\/p>\n<p>The bills were introduced after a March 2025 investigation found the explosion was likely caused by a degraded natural gas connection.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we approach the three-year anniversary of the devastating R.M. Palmer factory explosion, we continue to feel the impact it had on our community, including the loss of seven of our neighbors,\u201d said Cepeda-Freytiz. \u201cThe measures outlined in these bills will save lives and ensure that we learn from this tragedy, so no one else has to suffer as our community has.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The bills passed by the House include:<\/p>\n<p>House Bill 1525: Would require all owners and operators of pipelines transporting steam located in public rights-of-way to register with the Pennsylvania One Call System so that property owners and construction workers know where steam lines are located. (183-16)<\/p>\n<p>House Bill 1526: Would require the Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission to work with natural gas pipeline operators to develop guidance and management programs to address threats to degrading plastic pipelines. (110-89)<\/p>\n<p>A third bill in this legislative package, H.B. 1522, which would require buildings that use natural gas to install alarms to detect leaks, advanced out of the House Consumer Protection, Technology &amp; Utilities Committee in December and is expected to be brought to the House floor for consideration.<\/p>\n<p>House Bills 1525 and 1526 will now move to the state Senate for consideration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRISBURG, Pa. &#8211; The Pennsylvania House passed two bipartisan bills introduced by State Representative Johanny Cepeda-Freytiz (D-Berks) aimed&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[48569,48572,20374,5634,48571,48570,48573,128,130,129],"class_list":{"0":"post-99480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reading","8":"tag-cepeda","9":"tag-degraded-natural-gas-connection","10":"tag-natural-gas","11":"tag-pennsylvania-house-of-representatives","12":"tag-pennsylvania-public-utilities-commission","13":"tag-pipeline","14":"tag-r-m-palmer","15":"tag-reading-city","16":"tag-reading-city-headlines","17":"tag-reading-city-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}