President Bush has signed an executive order that calls for an existing interagency task force to take steps to speed up permitting of repairs to both natural gas and liquid product pipelines.

The order, which amends a May 2001 executive order, would automatically take effect for liquid product pipelines, which have a pipe-safety integrity rule in place, but it isn’t expected to go into force for gas pipelines until mid-December of this year. That is the deadline by which an integrity rule for gas pipelines must be approved, said Terry D. Boss, senior vice president of environmental and safety for the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA), which represents interstate gas pipelines.

The 2001 order set up the interagency task force within the framework of the Department of Energy (DOE) to “monitor and assist agencies in their efforts to expedite their reviews of permits or similar actions…to accelerate the completion of energy-related projects, increase energy production and conservation, and improve the transmission of energy.” The amended order specifically includes “pipeline safety projects” among those energy-related projects deserving expedited review.

The liquid product pipelines’ integrity rule requires pipe repairs to be completed within 30 or 60 days, depending on the severity of damage, said Boss. But gas pipelines in their integrity rule, which still is a work in progress, are leaning towards six months to a year as the deadline to finish repairs.

The task force is made up of representatives from nearly every department or agency within the federal government, as well as several White House advisers. It is chaired by Veronica Angulo, and housed at the DOE.

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