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PIPELINE SAFETY STUDY ACT
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HON. JOHN GARAMENDI
of california
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, June 30, 2021
Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, today I introduce the ``Pipeline Safety Study Act'' to direct a National Academy of Sciences study and report to Congress on the vulnerabilities in our oil and natural gas pipeline infrastructure. This bill is based on legislation I cosponsored last Congress with former Congressman Harley Rouda (D-CA-48). I also want to thank the National Society of Professional Surveyors, Subsurface Utility Engineering Association, and U.S. Geospatial Executives Organization for endorsing my bill.
Specifically, the legislation I introduce today would direct the National Academy of Sciences to review current federal regulations for pipeline safety and identify risks to pipelines from earthquakes and climate change-related weather events, whether by their design or their location. The federal guidelines for earthquake-resistant construction of gas and liquid fuel pipelines have not been meaningfully updated since 1992.
Since then, the proliferation of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas has been linked to increasingly frequent earthquakes in states with virtually no prior history of naturally occurring earthquakes. Because California is riddled with active fault lines and has experienced increasingly regular and severe forest fires due to climate change, my home state's energy infrastructure is particularly vulnerable to these threats.
In 2010, eight people died in San Bruno, California when a defective pipeline exploded, but this tragedy was eminently avoidable. Residents had reported smelling a gas leak days ahead of the explosion, and investigators later found evidence of shoddy welds that had rendered the pipeline vulnerable to any number of potential disruptions. While this event was not directly linked to an earthquake and instead caused by shoddy maintenance and failure to replace an antiquated line, the federal government can and must do better to improve pipeline safety.
Madam Speaker, Congress cannot begin to strengthen the safety and resiliency requirements for federally regulated pipelines before we understand the gaps in the government's own outdated regulations and industry practices. The National Academy of Sciences study authorized in my bill would do just that, so that Congress can understand the scope of the problem and begin to legislate the solution.
I thank Chairman DeFazio (D-OR) for including my bill in the hazmat title of the ``Investing in a New Vision for the Environment and Surface Transportation (INVEST) in America Act'' (H.R. 3684).
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 114
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