Senate agrees on pipeline safety program

by The Associated Press

The U.S. Senate approved tougher pipeline safety provisions in a measure inserted into the energy bill by a 94-0 vote March 8.

Senate approval of the pipeline measures were spurred by concern over several major pipeline accidents including a fiery one in 1999 in Bellingham, Wash., where three young people were killed, and a pipeline explosion in 2000 in New Mexico that killed 12 campers.

The amendment calls for better training of federal and state pipeline inspectors, and expansion of pipeline monitoring and reporting by industry. Also, it would authorize more research into ways to make safer the nation’s more than 1.6 million miles natural gas and other fuel pipelines run by 3,000 operators.

In response to security concerns raised by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Senate added provisions to bar the release of some sensitive pipeline data that in the past had been readily available.

“Sensitive information must not be released into the wrong hands,” said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the measures’ lead sponsors.