US Congress sends pipeline safety bill to Obama

OREANDA-NEWS. June 15, 2016. The main pipeline safety regulator in the US will gain the power to issue broad emergency orders under new legislation passed by Congress.

The US Senate yesterday unanimously approved the bill, less than a week after the House of Representatives did the same. The rapid passage of the bill in a mostly gridlocked Congress caught some in industry by surprise, although pipeline safety legislation is typically non-controversial.

President Barack Obama is expected to sign the bill, called the PIPES Act, which authorizes \\$518mn in funding for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) through September 2020. Industry trade groups including the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America and the American Petroleum Industry yesterday lauded the passage of the bill, which they said would support their goal of safe pipeline operations.

The bill would for the first time give PHMSA the authority to issue industry-wide emergency orders, helping the agency bypass a lengthy rulemaking process during emergencies. Congress added various caveats to those powers, such as allowing judicial review, in response to industry concerns that an open-ended authority would deprive pipelines of due process protections.

The bill also directs PHMSA to use its authority to regulate underground natural gas storage facilities, aiming to prevent future incidents such as a months-long gas leak from SoCal Gas' Aliso Canyon underground storage site that was discovered last year.

The bill also requires PHMSA to prioritize finishing long-delayed natural gas pipeline safety rules that Congress first mandated in 2011, when Congress authorized \\$363mn in funding to PHMSA through the end of fiscal 2015.