Congress Passes Bipartisan Pipeline Safety Bill
As this information from a Congressman at http://shuster.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=49&itemid=241 and a Senator at http://www.feinstein.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/press-releases?ContentRecord_id=3ab185f7-3754-4373-b5ef-91e013061d20 indicate, Congress can agree on something and that’s a pipeline safety bill. The summary of the bill from Thomas can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d112:1:./temp/~bdJdKp:@@@D&summ2=m&|/home/LgislativeData.php indicates, the bill puts the following measures into law –
Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011 – Increases civil penalties on an oil, natural gas, or hazardous liquid pipeline facility operator for failure to: (1) mark accurately the location of pipeline facilities in the vicinity of a demolition, excavation, tunneling, or construction; (2) use first a one-call notification system to establish the location of underground facilities in such an area; or (3) comply with safety standards and related requirements, including for inspections, maintenance, risk analysis, and adoption of an integrity management program.
Authorizes the Secretary of Transportation (DOT) to impose a civil penalty for obstruction or prevention of inspections or investigations.
Eliminates: (1) the cap on civil penalties for administrative enforcement actions regarding pipeline safety, and (2) judicial review of any denial of an application for waiver of certain safety requirements.
Conditions a state’s eligibility for one-call notification and damage prevention program grants on its not providing exemptions to municipalities, state agencies, or their contractors from its one-call notification system requirements.
Directs the Secretary to study the impact of third party damage on pipeline safety.
Authorizes the Secretary to require by regulation the use of automatic or remote-controlled shut-off valves, or equivalent technology, on new or entirely replaced transmission pipeline facilities.
Directs the Secretary to evaluate whether: (1) integrity management system requirements should be expanded beyond high consequence areas; and (2) application of integrity management program requirements for gas transmission pipeline facilities to additional areas would mitigate the need for class location requirements.
Prohibits the Secretary from expanding integrity management system requirements, or elements of them, beyond high consequence areas.
Requires the Comptroller General to evaluate whether risk-based reassessment intervals are a more effective alternative for managing risks to pipelines in high-consequence areas once baseline assessments are complete when compared to a 7-year reassessment interval.
Directs the Secretary to: (1) maintain and update biennially, as part of the National Pipeline Mapping System, a map of all designated high consequence areas in which pipelines are required to meet integrity management safety regulations; and (2) develop a program promoting greater awareness of the existence of the National Pipeline Mapping System to state and local emergency responders and other interested parties.
Requires the Secretary to conduct biennial follow-up surveys measuring the progress of pipeline facility owners and operators in implementing plans for the safe management and replacement of cast iron gas pipelines.
Directs the Secretary to report to specified congressional committees on leak detection systems utilized by operators of hazardous liquid pipeline facilities and transportation-related flow lines. Prohibits the Secretary from establishing standards for the capability of leak detection systems or requiring operators to use such systems.
Requires the Secretary to revise certain regulations to establish specific time limits for telephonic or electronic notice of accidents and incidents involving pipeline facilities to the Secretary and the National Response Center.
Amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act to authorize the Secretary to require recordkeeping and inspection compliance with respect to transportation-related onshore facility response plans.
Authorizes the Secretary to collect geospatial or technical data on transportation-related oil flow lines.
Revises requirements for cost recovery of reviews of the design of new gas or hazardous liquid pipeline facilities or liquefied natural gas pipeline facilities.
Establishes a Pipeline Safety Design Review Fund in the Treasury.
Subjects to DOT pipeline regulation as hazardous liquids any non-petroleum fuels, including biofuels, that are flammable, toxic, or corrosive or would be harmful to the environment if released in significant quantities.
Directs the Secretary to prescribe minimum safety standards for the transportation of carbon dioxide by pipeline in a gaseous state. Specifies standards for pipelines that transport carbon dioxide in both a liquid and gaseous state.
Directs the Secretary to review hazardous liquid pipeline facility regulations to determine whether they are sufficient to regulate pipeline facilities used for the transportation of diluted bitumen.
Authorizes the Secretary to analyze the transportation of non-petroleum hazardous liquids to identify the extent to which pipeline facilities are currently used to transport such liquids, such as chlorine, from chemical production facilities across land areas not owned by the producer that are accessible to the public.
Requires the Secretary, for FY2012 and FY2013, and authorizes the Secretary for subsequent fiscal years, to waive certain state cost requirements under a pipeline safety grant to a state that demonstrates an inability to maintain or increase the required funding share of its pipeline safety program because of economic hardship in that state.
Directs the Secretary to review existing federal and state regulations for gas and hazardous liquid gathering lines located onshore and offshore in the United States, including within the inlets of the Gulf of Mexico.
Extends through FY2015 the authorization of the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002.