Doris Matsui Asks Expert Point-Blank: Is A Pipeline Disaster More Likely Under The Trump Admin.?

4 months ago

During a House Energy Committee hearing before the Congressional Recess, Rep. Doris Matsui (D-CA) asked Executive Director of the Pipeline Safety Trust Bill Caram about pipeline safety under the Trump administration.

Transcript

00:00Recognizes the gentlelady from California 7th District. Five minutes for questions.

00:05Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want to thank the witnesses for being here today.

00:09Now, the safe operation of our nation's pipeline should be urgently priority for this committee,

00:15but it's now been almost two years since its authorization expired with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

00:23PHMSA is crucial for protecting communities from deadly pipeline accidents,

00:28but Republicans on this committee clearly don't see this as a priority.

00:34Instead of working towards a common-sense reauthorization of PHMSA,

00:38Republicans wasted the last two years trying to force through an extreme partisan bill that would cut pipeline safety by 18%.

00:46Now, under President Trump, I'm gravely concerned that pipeline safety has been caught

00:53in a broader Republican effort to roll back critical safety and pollution regulations across the federal government.

01:01As my colleagues have discussed, multiple senior officials at PHMSA resigned or having been pushed out of the agency.

01:10There's been a sharp decline, drop in the number of enforcement actions taken by PHMSA,

01:16and President Trump has rescinded critical pipeline safety rules.

01:21Now, Mr. Karam, I'm going to keep this very simple.

01:25Are these actions going to increase or decrease the livelihood of a deeply pipeline disaster?

01:32Thank you for that.

01:33As I stated before, I believe strong regulations and effective enforcement are critical to pipeline safety,

01:40and actions that erode those, I fear, will hurt pipeline safety.

01:47Exactly.

01:48Mr. Karam, this looks like a deliberate effort to cripple PHMSA's Capacity Act as an effective safety regulator.

01:55In order to benefit the oil and gas industry, would you disagree?

02:00I can't speculate as to the motivations behind the actions.

02:03Okay.

02:05It's not just PHMSA.

02:06This is part of a pattern EPA staff has been told not to enforce pollution rules.

02:12The Department of Energy has been ordered to stop enforcing efficiency standards.

02:18The Department of Labor has been ordered to stop enforcing anti-discrimination laws.

02:23This is a deliberate, coordinated effort to weaken the protections that keep us safe.

02:28Now, I want to focus on the new rule for carbon dioxide pipelines for a moment, because I think it demonstrates this point.

02:38As you mentioned in your testimony, it's now been five years since the CO2 pipeline disaster in Mississippi that sent 45 people to the hospital.

02:49PHMSA proposed new rules to prevent this disaster from happening again,

02:53where President Trump immediately withdrew the new rule, just as new CO2 pipelines are being built across the country.

03:02Mr. Karam, can you briefly describe some of the unique challenges and concerns surrounding the carbon dioxide pipelines?

03:10Sure.

03:11So, CO2 is an asphyxiant, and it's heavier than air.

03:15And it's usually transported in a pipeline in a dense phase.

03:19In the event of a pipeline rupture, large amounts of CO2 can escape from the pipeline,

03:25and it can move in long distances, close to the ground, in dangerous and even lethal concentrations.

03:32It's odorless.

03:33It can be invisible, making it really difficult to detect.

03:37So, all of these unique physical properties really present unique risks relative to other types of pipelines

03:43and unique emergency response challenges as well.

03:46How did the new proposed rule for CO2 pipelines address these challenges?

03:52Well, it proposed new standards to ensure that ruptures would be less likely to occur,

03:56like stronger construction and design standards and real-time monitoring.

04:01It also made sure that all parts of the pipeline where a failure could affect a community

04:06would be subject to stricter safety standards,

04:09and it also made improvements to an operator's responsibility to ensure strong emergency response.

04:15So, does the president's decision to kill this rule make communities more safe or less safe?

04:22Well, if it's between finalizing the proposed rule or not modernizing the regulations,

04:27not modernizing the regulations makes communities less safe.

04:30Less safe.

04:31Mr. Karam, without new safety rules, will we see another tragedy like the disaster in Mississippi?

04:36I certainly hope not.

04:38We will be relying on operators to follow voluntary industry standards instead of the law.

04:44Okay.

04:45Let me just talk about hydrogen blending.

04:48Blending hydrogen into natural gas pipelines also prevents new safety concerns that need to be addressed.

04:54Mr. Karam, can you briefly describe some of the unique challenges and concerns with hydrogen blending?

05:00In about five seconds.

05:02I'm not sure I can do that in five seconds.

05:07Okay.

05:09Could the lady submit the question to the witness?

05:12I certainly will.

05:12Thank you very much.

05:16Thank you very much.

Doris Matsui Asks Expert Point-Blank: Is A Pipeline Disaster More Likely Under The Trump Admin.?

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