Nick Snow
Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON, DC, Sept. 28 -- The US House Energy and Commerce Committee passed a bill Sept. 27 reauthorizing federal oil and gas pipeline safety programs. It now has to be reconciled with a similar measure passed June 19 by the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee before there can be a final vote on the House floor.
Passage of the latest House pipeline bill by voice vote came hours before Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee leaders introduced their own pipeline safety bill.
Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Ark.) and chief minority member Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hi.) sponsored the measure to reauthorize the federal Pipeline Safety Act for 4 years starting in 2007, with Trent Lott (R-Miss.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) as cosponsors.
Other provisions include a 50% increase in the number of federal pipeline inspectors to 135 from 90 at a cost of $6 million over 4 years, application of Department of Transportation standards to all low-stress pipelines, and new civil enforcement authority against excavators and pipeline operators responsible for third-party damage.
Industry responds
The burst of activity generally encouraged oil and gas pipeline groups, which have been eager to see federal pipeline safety legislation before Congress adjourns.
"This is an important step toward a pipeline safety bill that can pass both houses of Congress and be sent to the president before the end of the year," Association of Oil Pipelines Executive Director Benjamin S. Cooper said before the House Energy and Commerce vote.
He applauded the bill's provisions, which aim to improve state programs to reduce excavation damage to pipelines, to strengthen federal enforcement of damage prevention laws, and to provide safety protection for low-pressure pipelines.
"We are not finished. We know we have more work to do," Cooper said.
Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust in Bellingham, Wash., said the bill that came out of the Energy and Commerce Committee was a significant improvement from the measure which the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee passed in June.
"The bill passed today was carefully crafted to meet community and industry needs. I am thrilled at the bipartisan way that Congress, industry associations, and public interest groups worked together to design a bill that goes even further to protect the public than what the administration [of President George W. Bush] had proposed," he said.
The organization particularly approved of an amendment in the bill that would supersede the low-stress pipeline regulations, which were proposed by DOT's Pipeline and Hazardous Safety Administration on Aug. 31. Stevens and Inouye's bill contains a similar provision.
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