Pipeline safety legislation, separated out from the wreckage of the broad energy bill, made it through the Senate Wednesday night as stand-alone legislation (H.R. 3609). Proponents of the legislation were expecting the House also would vote it out before winding up its session Thursday night.

The bill voted out by unanimous consent in the Senate Wednesday was the consensus legislation agreed to in September by the House/Senate conferees on energy legislation (see Daily GPI, Nov. 12). It was one of the few energy items on which the Democrats and Republicans of the 107th Congress could agree.

Martin Edwards, vice president of legislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, commented on the bill: “I won’t say we’re in love with it, but we can live with it.” Martin had said earlier that if the pipeline safety bill had not passed in this session the group would not support it next year, because some of the reforms it contains are already underway, and the pipelines don’t want to see those delayed or changed. The bill basically revamps procedures for the Transportation Department to oversee pipeline safety with new rules as to how the pipes are to operate safety and maintenance programs. It also pushes toward establishment of a nationwide, three-digit “one-call” number for excavators to find out pipeline locations before they dig.

Congressional energy leaders officially buried the broader legislation Wednesday as they moved toward adjournment, and have promised a renewed effort in the 108th Congress. Even the relatively non-controversial extension of the Price Anderson Act to continue the cap on liability for nuclear plant operators fell by the wayside in the last week.

Both the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) and the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission (IOGCC) were disappointed that no comprehensive bill emerged after lengthy hearings and negotiations, but they were optimistic for next year.

“America needs a meaningful energy policy, now more than ever,” said Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, IOGCC chairman. IPAA said it would continue to seek more access to federal lands, tax and royalty reforms to encourage drilling and production and environmental measures that will not hamper oil and gas development.

On Wednesday, Republican Sen. Frank H. Murkowski, newly elected governor of Alaska and ranking member of the Senate Energy Committee, announced that conferees had declared the energy bill officially dead for this year and this Congress. He pointed to a revival of the debate next year, noting the increased need for comprehensive energy legislation in view of the unsettled Middle East situation. “Time ran out, but the need for an energy bill has not,” he said. Murkowski’s drive to open up the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for drilling was a major disputed item.

Energy bill sponsors originally conceived of a measure restructuring the rules for the electric power industry, developing domestic resources, furthering environmental concerns by putting stricter emission limits on vehicles, encouraging the use of ethanol in gasoline, repealing the Public Utility Holding Company Act and encouraging a gas pipeline from Alaska, among other things. The two houses of Congress, however, came out with two widely different bills, and efforts at compromise failed.

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