While the series of terrorist attacks on the United States Tuesday will “change the entire agenda of Congress and the federal government” during the fall session, a key legislative analyst doubts that energy legislation will be placed on the back burner as a result.

“I wouldn’t make the assumption” that energy will become less a priority to Congress in the wake of the attacks, said Martin Edwards, director of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA). “It may actually become more important since it’s both a national security and economic issue,” he noted.

“I don’t think it [energy] can take a backseat” during this legislative session, he said, adding that issues such as education and Social Security may become less urgent, however.

The House of Representatives passed its energy bill in early August, and the Senate is expected to take up its energy legislation during the fall session. Even prior to the terrorist assaults this week, getting a bill through the Senate and reconciling it with the House version this fall was seen as a daunting task.

In a related development, Edwards said interstate natural gas pipelines continue to be on a high state of alert after the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C. INGAA sent out an advisory to its pipeline members Tuesday to put into effect security procedures that were developed by the federal government and industry.

Police and sheriff authorities are guarding compressor stations around the clock; LNG and citygate facilities are being patrolled; and pipeline personnel are conducting visual inspections of their facilities on a regular basis, Edwards told NGI.

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