The National Association of Electrical Distributors (NAED), St. Louis, announced its support of the Metal Theft Prevention Act of 2013 co-sponsored by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Representative Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.). The bill is intended to reduce metal theft, including copper, in several ways including making it more difficult for thieves to sell their metal at scrap yards.
Tom Naber, NAED president and CEO, said in the press release announcing the association’s support, “Our distributor members are especially concerned with copper theft. In fact, according to one of our studies, 85% of NAED distributor members have experienced theft from external sources with cable and wire being the most common products stolen.
The bill was introduced in the House and Senate on Feb. 27 and was referred to committee in both Houses. United States Telecom Association, which represents service providers and suppliers for the telecom industry, has provided this breakdown of the bill:
Documentation requirements. Individuals selling material to recyclers will be required to provide documentation that they own the metal or are authorized to sell it. This requirement does not apply to metal products that a private citizen would likely be seeking to sell.
Cash payment limits. Recyclers may not pay more than $100 in cash for metal.
Federal offense. The bill creates a specific federal crime of stealing metal from critical infrastructure.
Record keeping requirements. Recyclers will be required to keep basic records of all purchases, such as the date of the purchase, a description of the metal, the amount paid, and the name and address of the seller.
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Jim Lucy Blog
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Jim Lucy has been wandering through the electrical market for more than 30 years, most of the time as an editor for Electrical Wholesaling, Electrical Marketing newsletter and CEE News. During that time he and the editorial team for the publications have won numerous national awards for their coverage of the electrical business. He showed an early interest in electricity, when as a youth he had an idea for a hot dog cooker. Unfortunately, the first crude prototype malfunctioned and the arc nearly blew him out of his parents' basement. Before becoming an editor for Electrical Wholesaling magazine and Electrical Marketing, he earned a BA degree in journalism and a MA in communications from Glassboro State College, Glassboro, NJ., which is formerly best known as the site of the 1967 summit meeting between President Lyndon Johnson and Russian Premier Aleksei Nikolayevich Kosygin, and now best known as the New Jersey state college that changed its name in 1992 to Rowan University because of a generous $100 million donation by N.J. zillionaire industrialist Henry Rowan. Jim is a Brooklyn-born Jersey Guy happily transplanted in the fertile plains of Kansas for the past 20 years.