The first bill approved by the US Senate this year concerned the pipeline safety act reauthorization. The House will consider the senate bill when drafting their own bill, compromises must be reached, and presidential approval must be received before any of the proposed requirements will become law. But… the current Senate bill gives a good indication of the types of requirements that future legislation (and subsequent regulations) will contain, such as:
- requires operators to inspect pipelines every five years
- expands state oversight of hazardous liquid and natural gas pipelines
- increases outlays for safety efforts by $13 billion over several years
- improves whistle-blower protections
- requires pipeline operators to submit to federal or state agencies detailed risk assessments and inspection plans
- provides additional DOT funds for research into technologies to detect pipeline flaws better
- requires operators to submit to state or federal oversight agencies a plan to enhance the qualifications of pipeline personnel
- requires owners and operators of pipelines to report to the DOT any spill of more than five gallons
- increases from $25,000 to $500,000 the civil penalty for each failure by an operator to mark accurately the location of pipelines near construction and demolition operations or violations of other safety standards
- increases the maximum civil penalty to $1 million.