President Bush signed into law Tuesday a long-awaited bill that enacts tougher inspection and other safety standards for interstate natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines.

The “Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2002,” H.R. 3609, was passed by both houses of Congress in mid-November (see Daily GPI, Nov. 18). Tuesday’s signing climaxes nearly four years of fighting within Congress and intense outside lobbying by pipeline groups, such as the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (see Daily GPI, Dec. 17).

The tougher law comes on the heels of two deadly pipeline explosions in the past three years — a blast on a petroleum products line in Bellingham, WA, that killed three persons in 1999, and a rupture and subsequent flare-up on El Paso Natural Gas in New Mexico in mid-2000, which killed 12 members of two extended families.

The most critical part of the new law deals with the inspection intervals for pipelines. It requires pipelines with the highest risk factors — or at least half of existing gas pipe facilities — to complete inspections within five years, and the remainder of the gas pipelines to be inspected within the next five years. The new law also requires pipes to be re-examined in seven years.

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.