> I've read that some towns are not allowing new natural gas connections because of pollution issues. With the explosion yesterday in Maryland and our problems keeping up infrastructure, it seems like a reasonable approach to me.

Yes. In Britain there was a three way choice offered to central government towards the end of last century. They could discontinue household natural gas service (perhaps gradually over time) and shut the delivery network of pipes under roads across much of the country OR they could replace the entire network of cast iron pipes which are gradually failing so as to prevent explosions OR they could accept that gradually gas explosions would become more and more common as the pipes fail.

The last mile gas delivery is notionally in the hands of private company National Grid, because Tory ideology holds that this is better, but of course the private company exists only to collect profits, government must pay for all the inevitable costs of delivering the service, and thus had to make this decision. In the event they picked replacing all the pipelines, section by section ever since the cast iron gas pipes are being dug out of roads and replaced with plastic pipes expected to last many more decades.

Given that burning gas helps force climate change we don't want, in hindsight probably switching off the network would have been a wiser choice. The plastic pipes may last until say, 2100 but burning natural gas to heat UK homes in even 2050 will be very obviously stupid.