Senate Hearing Summary: April 12, 2006
House Rep Bonnie Mitchell, House Rep Sheila Francouer, and Sen. Kenney introduced the bill. Sen. Kenney talked about the history of this bill, there have been 6 bills since 1989 re fuel gas licensing. Craig and Michelle Luhrmann testified to their personal experience.
Craig stressed how this law would deter people from taking on work they are not certified and licensed for.
Opponents argue that licensing doesn’t prevent people from perfoming licensed tasks.
Craig argued that the character of NH’s people was better than that.
That many people would obey the licensing laws, even though the risk that they would be caught would be small.
If people were to break the law in situations where they are unlikely to get caught, they would need much larger police organizations.
Sen. Kenney concurred with this.
Mike Delaney, Gov. Lynch’s personal counsel, read a letter to the committe from Gov Lynch, in support of the bill.
Deputy Fire Marshall John Raymond talked about the volatile nature of lp gas, and how the bill will reduce the probability of future fatal incidents, because it “raises the level of expectations through training, education and demonstration of knowledge to receive a license in this field.”.
He listed other accidents in recent years that were caused by improperly installed or repaired gas systems.
Of note were representatives from the public utilities, and Ken Taylor, from the propane Assoc., who originally opposed the bill.
They all spoke in favor of the bill. Maureen Syr testified about a situation in her Concord development where improper gas conversion installations have caused numerous problems that have failed to be remedied, eventually causing evacuation for carbon monoxide.
A number of people have come forward with similar issues.
She felt compelled to testify when a plumber she hired to install a new system, because the original installer failed to correct the problem, told her, “you need a license to install piping to flush your toilet, but you don’t need a license to work on a burner that uses combustible material”.
No one spoke against the bill.