House GOP Moves Bill To Deny Applicability Of NTSB Safety Rules To Keystone Tar Sands Pipeline

[hatrack]

As the President considers whether to approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a Republican bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would prohibit regulators from implementing safety rules recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board. Pipeline safety emerged as a major concern last year after a rupture on a PG&E gas pipeline in San Bruno, Calif. leveled dozens of homes, killed eight, and injured many others. In Michigan the Enbridge pipeline rupture spilled more than 800,000 gallons of tar sands crude into the Kalamazoo River and sickened hundreds.

The agency charged with regulating the nations 2.5 million miles of pipelines, the Department of Transportation’s Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, became a target for reform as reports detailed the dept’s understaffing and heavy ties to industry.

Lawmakers from communities impacted by the recent disasters promised to strengthen pipeline oversight in legislation to reauthorize federal pipeline safety programs, but action has been slow, and a bill that moved through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee this month is distressingly weak, pipeline safety advocates say.

The Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, sponsored by Bill Shuster (R-PA) requires the Dept. of Transportation to conduct a study on expanding “integrity management rules” for how pipeline operators test and monitor their lines for corrosion and other problems. Under current rules PHMSA only requires regular testing on lines that run through “high consequence areas” — places that are highly populated or ecologically sensitive.

EDIT

http://iowaindependent.com/61401/pipeline-bill-would-delay-safety-measures

[ixion]

1. They're gonna slap the sucker right across the Ogalala aquifer

whether Nebraskans like it or not. How's that for representative government. :sarcasm:

[SpiralHawk]

2. Supreme Scuzzbaggery (R) aimed against America's heart

Freaking Republicons against America.

Disgustipating.

[benld74]

3. OF Course they would,,,

[Turbineguy]

4. It's the repub jobs program

Jobs for ambulance drivers, emergency room personnel, lawyers and judges to deal with lawsuits. And if you are one of those killed or injured, it was because God doesn't like you.