Pipeline safety is expected to move to the forefront in theSenate this week, with the chamber due to begin consideration oflegislation on Thursday.

Signaling the importance of the issue, Majority Leader TrentLott (R-MS) is slated to bring up legislation that was introducedlast month by Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and co-sponsored by a numberof other senators. The measure, which applies to both natural gasand hazardous liquid pipelines, is identical to the pipeline safetybill that cleared the Senate last year, but failed in the House.

“They figured this bill had reached pretty much of a consensus[in the Senate], and that they ought to go ahead and just move it”early in the session, said Martin Edwards, vice president oflegislative affairs for the Interstate Natural Gas Association ofAmerica, which represents interstate gas pipelines.

But he conceded there are a lot of unknown variables at thispoint that could influence the ultimate make-up of the bill andsignificantly delay it. “.[W]e don’t know under what kind ofarrangement it [the legislation] will be brought up, and thereforehow many amendments will be offered and whether all of thoseamendments will be germane to the bill.” Unlike in the House, theSenate can attach amendments that have no relevancy to thelegislation being considered by lawmakers.

The measure could be altered to a degree that the “sort ofdelicate compromise that’s been worked out” between interestedsenators, the pipeline industry and safety and environmental groups”ends up being destroyed,” Edwards noted.

The McCain bill sailed through the Senate last September in thewake of the explosion on the El Paso Natural Gas system in NewMexico that killed 12 members of an extended family. But Houselawmakers, led by Reps. John Dingell (D-MI) and James Obertsar(D-MN), voted down the legislation, labeling it too soft onpipeline safety violators. Oberstar had sought to substitute theSenate bill with his own tougher legislation, but was unsuccessfulduring the 106th Congress. He re-introduced his bill last month.

Edwards said he doesn’t think much has changed in the past fiveor six months. “It’s still going to be hard to get a bill throughboth chambers [during this session], but probably harder in theHouse.”

McCain’s legislation seeks to raise civil fines, grant statesgreater oversight of pipes, increase funding for the Department ofTransportation’s Office of Pipeline Safety, require moreinspections and detailed reports to regulators, provide forcollaborative research and development activities, and would grantwhistleblower status to pipeline workers who reveal informationabout safety problems.

For pipeline-safety oversight activities, the three-year billwould authorize federal funding at $26 million for fiscal year2001, and $30 million each for fiscal years 2002 and 2003.

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