Feds seek tougher pipeline oversight

WASHINGTON -- Federal oversight of the nation's pipelines would be tightened and penalties for some violations more than doubled under an Obama administration plan sent to Congress Wednesday in response to a deadly explosion in California and a major oil spill in Michigan.

The legislation would increase from $1 million to $2.5 million the maximum fine for the most serious violations involving deaths, injuries or major environmental harm, the Department of Transportation said. It also would pay for an additional 40 inspectors and safety regulators over the next four years.

The proposal follows several accidents, including last week's huge gas explosion in suburban San Francisco, that have called attention to the nation's aging pipelines and how they are monitored. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said his department "needs stronger authority to ensure the continued safety and reliability of our nation's pipeline network."

The department's proposal would eliminate exemptions from safety regulations for pipelines that gather hazardous liquids upstream of transmission pipelines, DOT said.

It also would authorize the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, which regulates interstate pipeline safety, to collect additional data on pipelines, including information on previously unregulated lines, the department said. And, it would provide for improved coordination with states and other agencies on inspector training and oversight of pipeline construction and expansion projects involving both gas and hazardous liquids pipelines.

The safety administration is part of the Transportation Department.

Deputy Transportation Secretary John Porcari told the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which was holding a hearing Wednesday on the Michigan oil spill, that the department is also crafting new regulations to enhance pipeline safety, including requiring the installation of emergency flow restricting devices on some pipelines and changing the distance between valves. The regulations would be separate from the legislative proposal.

The department is also considering extending "high consequence area" designations to additional stretches of pipeline, Porcari told the committee in prepared testimony. Regulations put in place after several gas pipeline accidents a decade ago require oil and gas companies to inspect the integrity of pipelines in densely populated areas. Those inspections, which are conducted by the companies themselves, began in 2002 and are supposed to be completed by 2012.

The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. gas pipeline explosion killed at least four people in San Bruno, Calif., and destroyed nearly 40 homes. That pipeline is regulated by the state utility commission.

An oil spill from a pipeline owned by a Canadian company near Marshal, Mich., sent an estimated 820,000 to 1 million gallons spewing into the Kalamazoo River in late July.

Another spill from a pipeline by the same company, Enbridge Inc., was reported within the last week in suburban Chicago.

Some Republican committee criticized the department for waiting until Congress is less than three weeks away from recessing for midterm elections to submit the proposal. They said the pipeline agency has also been promising to submit a bill for months that would extend authority for its operations, due to expire on Sept. 30.

Rep. James Oberstar, D-Minn., chairman of the committee, said the committee will get to work on a bill.

"I do think there is urgency," Oberstar said.