00:00He goes back and the chair now recognizes the gentleman from Texas's 33rd district for five
00:05minutes for questions. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much and let me start by reaffirming I think
00:11what we all know to be true and that pipeline safety is not a luxury but it's a necessity
00:16and we rely over literally three million miles of pipeline to move energy and materials
00:21that power this country. It's very critical for keeping our houses cool and keeping them warm
00:28and jobs. So I mean it's important for everything and that's why FEMSA's mission is so important
00:33and it's why this committee's work to reauthorize FEMSA is long overdue. I think that we've let the
00:39agency's authorities lapse even as pipeline miles expand and aging infrastructure strains and new
00:45fuels like hydrogen and co2 are finally starting to enter the system and as a Texan I know better
00:52than most how central pipelines are to American energy. They're efficient, they're economical and
00:57they're essential but they're also not infallible and we have to look for ways that we can raise
01:03the bar on safety with new energy demand surging, the country growing, things like hydrogen and co2
01:10infrastructure coming online and extreme weather risk and extreme weather extremes increasing. The
01:20stakes really couldn't be higher. We need FEMSA to ensure that we have the tools, the staff,
01:25and the authority to really prioritize safety and reduce leaks and protect a lot of our communities
01:32as well as we experience this growth and this new demand for energy. And so I think that what we really
01:37need to be asking ourselves is how can we make real progress on pipeline safety without getting bogged down
01:42in partisanship which is something that I've really stressed a lot on being on the subcommittee.
01:48And so at the end of the day this hearing is not just about policy but it's really whether about families can feel
01:54safe in their homes and businesses and whether or not we're going to have the energy that we needed. And so I wanted
01:59to ask Mr. Karam, your organization often works across stakeholder lines and I wanted to ask like what are two or three
02:06practical bipartisan steps this committee could take in reauthorization that would increase pipeline safety
02:12and community trust but still be workable for the industry?
02:16Yeah, thank you so much for that question. Two things come to mind, both of which I mentioned briefly.
02:22The first is in-home methane detectors or natural gas alarms. The NTSB has been recommending these devices for some time.
02:29There's been some disagreement as to whether that's really under PHMSA or a state program's jurisdiction.
02:36But I firmly believe that it is part of a operator's public awareness responsibilities and could be part of the public
02:44awareness regulations. And this subcommittee could make that happen. We saw in Japan when they adopted widespread use
02:53of natural gas alarms. We saw the incidents decrease by 90%. I firmly believe that widespread adoption of natural gas alarms
03:02will make a meaningful difference quickly on fatalities from pipelines. And another would be fire shutoff valves
03:11or thermally activated shutoff valves. These would help mitigate the damage from a fire in a building that could be made worse
03:22by the presence of gas service. They're very simple, inexpensive devices. I believe they cost $75. They're required in Massachusetts
03:30already and have been for some time. A low melting point polymer keeps the valve open. When exposed to heat,
03:37it automatically closes and it would prevent gas from making that fire worse and fueling it. They don't require any
03:45ongoing maintenance and they're very easy to install in existing service lines.
03:49Yeah. I also wanted to ask you, we know that communities are more likely to push back on CO2 and hydrogen
03:56projects if they don't understand the risk or benefits. And we see, we now see this happening across the Midwest
04:02with the CO2 pipelines. What tools like mapping early engagement or post-incident transparency can Congress
04:10support to build trust in these next-gen pipelines?
04:13I think the biggest piece of building trust for this type of pipeline is improving the regulations.
04:20There are glaring regulatory gaps. Certain types of CO2 pipelines aren't covered by any minimum safety
04:27regulations. And the regulations that do apply, the pipelines that are covered by regulations, those
04:34regulations don't really address the unique physical properties and risks that CO2 pose. So I think the biggest thing that could be
04:42done for building trust in these pipelines is modernizing the regulations.
04:46Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. And Mr. Chairman, as I get ready to close,
04:49I hope that too, we can address this again to talk about how we can get the public more involved before something
04:56bad happens. Oftentimes, it takes something really bad to happen before the public really gets engaged.
05:01We need to start looking at how we can get in front of a lot of these things and not just be responding to,
05:07you know, unfortunate situations. I yield back. Thank you.
Comments