At Thursday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about pipeline safety policy.
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00:00What federal policies would ensure that energy America needs is affordable, reliable, and safe?
00:08The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA,
00:12is the agency within the Department of Transportation responsible for overseeing pipeline safety.
00:18This is no small task, with over 3 million miles of oil, natural gas,
00:24and other hazardous liquid pipelines all across this nation.
00:28Good federal policy would ensure that pipeline operators have a clear understanding of the safety requirements,
00:36federal regulations are based on data and address risk appropriately,
00:41and the regulations are cost-effective.
00:45So what was the previous administration's policy on pipeline safety?
00:49One maxim of politics is that personnel is policy.
00:54If that's the case, then the Biden administration didn't give a damn about pipeline safety
01:01because they didn't nominate anyone to be the PHMSA administrator.
01:06That's right.
01:07It's not that they nominated someone and then withdrew that person.
01:11They simply never bothered to nominate any human being to lead the pipeline safety agency.
01:19Instead, they relied on a deputy administrator for the entire four years,
01:25a position that is not confirmed by the United States Senate.
01:29That was a shameful dereliction of duty.
01:33Unfortunately, in that entire time, this committee never held a single hearing on pipeline safety
01:39for those entire four years, denying us any opportunity for oversight.
01:44So there was nobody nominated by the president in the position, nobody confirmed by the Senate in the position,
01:49and this committee held zero hearings on pipeline safety.
01:54That gives you an indication of what priority they put on this topic.
01:59President Trump has corrected this error by nominating Paul Roberti to lead PHMSA.
02:06I hope to hold a hearing on his nomination very soon.
02:10The unaccountable Biden PHMSA also attempted to remake the pipeline safety agency into a climate change agency
02:19because every agency in the federal government under Biden was a climate change agency
02:23instead of doing what its damn purpose was,
02:26not only duplicating the work of other agencies,
02:30but disregarding the explicit statutory language that Congress carefully negotiated.
02:36One egregious example of the Biden PHMSA's overreach
02:40is the Natural Gas Leak Detection and Repair Rule
02:44in which PHMSA included the regulation of underground natural gas storage
02:50and liquefied natural gas facilities despite the statute explicitly
02:55not including those among the list of facilities to be addressed by that rulemaking.
03:01It's notable that more actions finalized during the Biden PHMSA
03:07were overturned by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
03:11than any other administration since Congress created the agency in 2004.
03:18Listen to that again.
03:2021 years ago, Congress created that agency.
03:23The last four years under President Biden,
03:26they had more of their actions overturned by a federal court of appeals
03:30than any administration in history.
03:33I suppose that's not surprising given that they didn't have anyone named to run the agency
03:38and they didn't have the Senate engaged in oversight on them.
03:43Fortunately, President Trump stopped the leak detection rule before it could be promulgated.
03:48This Congress, we have the opportunity to debate
03:53and to pass a pipeline safety reauthorization.
04:00Today's hearing is designed to help inform that discussion.
04:04One topic I expect to hear from the witnesses
04:06is the threat to pipeline safety from eco-terrorists.
04:12Though the current statute has penalties against individuals, quote,
04:17damaging or destroying an operational pipeline,
04:20it does not expressly address eco-terrorists
04:24who tamper with pipelines or damage pipelines under construction.
04:29The unauthorized turning of pipeline valves
04:32is a major safety concern
04:35that threatens the very environment
04:38that the eco-terrorists claim they're trying to protect.
04:41Pipeline operators have been forced to shut down their lines
04:45in response to threats from eco-terrorists.
04:49I'm proud to co-sponsor Senator Sheehy's
04:52Safe and Secure Transportation of Energy Act,
04:56which would close this gap in statute
04:58by adding, quote,
05:00vandalizing, tampering with, disrupting the operation or construction of
05:04or preventing the operation or construction of a pipeline
05:07to the list of actions for which penalties could be applied.
05:12I also want to hear from the witnesses about ways
05:15that pipeline operators are seeking to improve
05:17the safe operation of their pipelines,
05:20but for which outdated or misguided regulations
05:23are currently barriers to greater safety.
05:26I look forward to the witnesses' testimony
05:30and their response to questions.
05:31Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:32Well, thank you, Senator Cruz,
05:34for that opening statement.
05:37We'll now move to member questions,
05:40and I'll begin with Mr. Leger.
05:43As I mentioned in my opening statement,
05:45I'm interested in using this PHMSA reauthorization
05:49to modernize our pipeline safety laws
05:52and to seize on opportunities
05:54that would allow industry to deploy innovative technologies
05:58to enhance safety within the broader ecosystem.
06:03Mr. Leger, can you provide an example
06:06of a promising safety technology
06:08and what legislative changes might be needed
06:12to promote further adoption of this technology
06:15or new technologies in general?
06:18Absolutely, Senator Young.
06:23Thank you for the question.
06:25At CenterPoint Energy,
06:26we've certainly embraced new technology
06:30as well as our other member companies
06:32that are associated with AGA.
06:34I have a couple of things that we work on.
06:37Number one, one of the things
06:38that I'm really most proud of
06:40that would certainly be helpful
06:42to have PHMSA weigh in on
06:44is we are currently deploying
06:46advanced metering technology
06:48and that's a first in the industry
06:53and we plan to install
06:56the one millionth meter of that this year.
07:01Over a seven-year period,
07:02we plan to replace every single one of our meters
07:04on our system with this advanced meter technology.
07:06So one of the things that this does,
07:10it is directly affects what you were talking about
07:15is the safe operation of our system.
07:18So the meter that we are working with
07:20has a couple of sensors on the inside.
07:22One is a heat sensor.
07:23And if there's a fire on the inside of the house
07:27and the building wall gets to a certain temperature,
07:29it will automatically shut that meter off.
07:32Additionally, there's a flow sensor in there
07:34that when it gains flow
07:36that's excessive of what is normal through that meter,
07:40it will automatically shut that meter off,
07:42thereby providing safety features for the homeowner.
07:45You'll see you soon.
07:49Quite the same.
07:50Outroinder