Hill Heat

E&E News:

A panel of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee wants answers about the safety of the nation’s 2.3 million miles of natural gas and hazardous materials pipelines.

Two agencies are in charge of the pipeline network: the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials and Transportation Security Administration (PHSMA) under the Transportation Department and the Transportation Safety Agency under the Homeland Security Department.

But a DOT Inspector General’s report last month said after signing an “annex” of shared responsibility two years ago, the agencies still did not have a coordinated plan to effectively oversee the pipeline system.

“TSA and PHMSA should clearly delineate their respective roles and responsibilities in overseeing and enforcing security regulations for pipeline operators,” said Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee Chairwoman Corrine Brown (D-Fla.). “We must ensure that pipelines are as safe as possible, and that the public is informed of the measures taken to secure their safety. Anything less is not an option.”

Brown and other committee members want government officials to tell them how – and if – those responsibilities have been sorted out, a staff member said.

The inspector general said the two agencies needed to finalize the annex provisions and execute the plan, delineate who will enforce regulations for liquid natural gas operators and be more efficient in order to meet congressional mandates.

The agency has also already missed several deadlines set by a 2006 pipeline safety act. Three of the regulations were related to monitoring corrosion and oversight of low-stress pipelines – major causes of the BP North Slope pipeline leak that spilled more than 200,000 gallons of petroleum in Alaska two years ago.

PHMSA finally issued rules to prevent corrosion this month, although it brought some controversy as it was not clear which pipelines it would include. Under the new rule low-stress pipelines with a diameter of 8 5/8 inches or more placed within a half mile of environmentally sensitive areas would require more monitoring and testing, while the agency would determine rules for the other low-stress pipelines in a subsequent rulemaking.

PHMSA Administrator Carl Johnson told a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee in March that another overdue rulemaking on regulations for integrity management that affects 85 percent of natural gas pipelines – a majority of which are in highly populous areas – would be out this month.