• On June 8, the House of Representatives unanimously approved bipartisan legislation to improve federal oil and gas pipeline safety regulations. Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) was one of several House and Senate members who were directly responsible for co-authoring the final language, which was based on legislation that originated in the House Energy and Commerce Committee, House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, and the Senate. Capps released the following statement on the House amendment to the PIPES Act, S. 2276:
“This bipartisan legislation will take important steps to improve the safety of our pipeline infrastructure along the Central Coast and across the country,” Capps said in a statement released to the media. “Two and a half million miles of energy pipelines run throughout communities all over the United States, often unnoticed or neglected until they fail. My district saw this first-hand last year when Plains’ Line 901 spilled thousands of gallons of oil onto Refugio Beach and into the ocean, due to excessive corrosion. Pipeline failures such as this directly threaten the health and safety of the public, the local economy, and our environment.
“One of our jobs in Congress is to take lessons learned from past incidents, like the Plains spill, and use them to craft common-sense policies to minimize the risks of future spills. That is what this bill does, and I am happy to have helped lead the way on its adoption.”
During the committee markup, Capps was recognized for her leadership in drafting the legislation by a bipartisan group in the Energy and Commerce Committee, including Chairman Fred Upton, ranking member Frank Pallone, subcommittee ranking Member Bobby Rush, and Congresswoman Anna Eshoo. Capps led the effort to include several key provisions that were in direct response to findings from the Plains spill on May 19, 2015, including:
Language to clarify the definition of “high consequence area” to include coastal beaches around the country, which will ensure that these sensitive regions are subject to stronger safety standards and more frequent integrity assessments; requirements for additional research on the underlying causes of corrosion, which was central to Plains’s pipeline failure, and the best mechanisms for preventing it; and a closer examination of how pipeline integrity assessment frequency is determined, and recommendations for increased inspections.
Capps has also met with Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez several times to push for the finalization of rules mandated in 2011 regarding automatic shutoff valves and leak detection.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2016.