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Ted Cruz: This Is Proof That 'The Biden Administration Didn't Give A Damn About Pipeline Safety'
Forbes Breaking News
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5/19/2025
At Thursday's Senate Commerce Committee hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) spoke about pipeline safety policy.
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00:00
What federal policies would ensure that energy America needs is affordable, reliable, and safe?
00:08
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA,
00:12
is the agency within the Department of Transportation responsible for overseeing pipeline safety.
00:18
This is no small task, with over 3 million miles of oil, natural gas,
00:24
and other hazardous liquid pipelines all across this nation.
00:28
Good federal policy would ensure that pipeline operators have a clear understanding of the safety requirements,
00:36
federal regulations are based on data and address risk appropriately,
00:41
and the regulations are cost-effective.
00:45
So what was the previous administration's policy on pipeline safety?
00:49
One maxim of politics is that personnel is policy.
00:54
If that's the case, then the Biden administration didn't give a damn about pipeline safety
01:01
because they didn't nominate anyone to be the PHMSA administrator.
01:06
That's right.
01:07
It's not that they nominated someone and then withdrew that person.
01:11
They simply never bothered to nominate any human being to lead the pipeline safety agency.
01:19
Instead, they relied on a deputy administrator for the entire four years,
01:25
a position that is not confirmed by the United States Senate.
01:29
That was a shameful dereliction of duty.
01:33
Unfortunately, in that entire time, this committee never held a single hearing on pipeline safety
01:39
for those entire four years, denying us any opportunity for oversight.
01:44
So there was nobody nominated by the president in the position, nobody confirmed by the Senate in the position,
01:49
and this committee held zero hearings on pipeline safety.
01:54
That gives you an indication of what priority they put on this topic.
01:59
President Trump has corrected this error by nominating Paul Roberti to lead PHMSA.
02:06
I hope to hold a hearing on his nomination very soon.
02:10
The unaccountable Biden PHMSA also attempted to remake the pipeline safety agency into a climate change agency
02:19
because every agency in the federal government under Biden was a climate change agency
02:23
instead of doing what its damn purpose was,
02:26
not only duplicating the work of other agencies,
02:30
but disregarding the explicit statutory language that Congress carefully negotiated.
02:36
One egregious example of the Biden PHMSA's overreach
02:40
is the Natural Gas Leak Detection and Repair Rule
02:44
in which PHMSA included the regulation of underground natural gas storage
02:50
and liquefied natural gas facilities despite the statute explicitly
02:55
not including those among the list of facilities to be addressed by that rulemaking.
03:01
It's notable that more actions finalized during the Biden PHMSA
03:07
were overturned by a U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
03:11
than any other administration since Congress created the agency in 2004.
03:18
Listen to that again.
03:20
21 years ago, Congress created that agency.
03:23
The last four years under President Biden,
03:26
they had more of their actions overturned by a federal court of appeals
03:30
than any administration in history.
03:33
I suppose that's not surprising given that they didn't have anyone named to run the agency
03:38
and they didn't have the Senate engaged in oversight on them.
03:43
Fortunately, President Trump stopped the leak detection rule before it could be promulgated.
03:48
This Congress, we have the opportunity to debate
03:53
and to pass a pipeline safety reauthorization.
04:00
Today's hearing is designed to help inform that discussion.
04:04
One topic I expect to hear from the witnesses
04:06
is the threat to pipeline safety from eco-terrorists.
04:12
Though the current statute has penalties against individuals, quote,
04:17
damaging or destroying an operational pipeline,
04:20
it does not expressly address eco-terrorists
04:24
who tamper with pipelines or damage pipelines under construction.
04:29
The unauthorized turning of pipeline valves
04:32
is a major safety concern
04:35
that threatens the very environment
04:38
that the eco-terrorists claim they're trying to protect.
04:41
Pipeline operators have been forced to shut down their lines
04:45
in response to threats from eco-terrorists.
04:49
I'm proud to co-sponsor Senator Sheehy's
04:52
Safe and Secure Transportation of Energy Act,
04:56
which would close this gap in statute
04:58
by adding, quote,
05:00
vandalizing, tampering with, disrupting the operation or construction of
05:04
or preventing the operation or construction of a pipeline
05:07
to the list of actions for which penalties could be applied.
05:12
I also want to hear from the witnesses about ways
05:15
that pipeline operators are seeking to improve
05:17
the safe operation of their pipelines,
05:20
but for which outdated or misguided regulations
05:23
are currently barriers to greater safety.
05:26
I look forward to the witnesses' testimony
05:30
and their response to questions.
05:31
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
05:32
Well, thank you, Senator Cruz,
05:34
for that opening statement.
05:37
We'll now move to member questions,
05:40
and I'll begin with Mr. Leger.
05:43
As I mentioned in my opening statement,
05:45
I'm interested in using this PHMSA reauthorization
05:49
to modernize our pipeline safety laws
05:52
and to seize on opportunities
05:54
that would allow industry to deploy innovative technologies
05:58
to enhance safety within the broader ecosystem.
06:03
Mr. Leger, can you provide an example
06:06
of a promising safety technology
06:08
and what legislative changes might be needed
06:12
to promote further adoption of this technology
06:15
or new technologies in general?
06:18
Absolutely, Senator Young.
06:23
Thank you for the question.
06:25
At CenterPoint Energy,
06:26
we've certainly embraced new technology
06:30
as well as our other member companies
06:32
that are associated with AGA.
06:34
I have a couple of things that we work on.
06:37
Number one, one of the things
06:38
that I'm really most proud of
06:40
that would certainly be helpful
06:42
to have PHMSA weigh in on
06:44
is we are currently deploying
06:46
advanced metering technology
06:48
and that's a first in the industry
06:53
and we plan to install
06:56
the one millionth meter of that this year.
07:01
Over a seven-year period,
07:02
we plan to replace every single one of our meters
07:04
on our system with this advanced meter technology.
07:06
So one of the things that this does,
07:10
it is directly affects what you were talking about
07:15
is the safe operation of our system.
07:18
So the meter that we are working with
07:20
has a couple of sensors on the inside.
07:22
One is a heat sensor.
07:23
And if there's a fire on the inside of the house
07:27
and the building wall gets to a certain temperature,
07:29
it will automatically shut that meter off.
07:32
Additionally, there's a flow sensor in there
07:34
that when it gains flow
07:36
that's excessive of what is normal through that meter,
07:40
it will automatically shut that meter off,
07:42
thereby providing safety features for the homeowner.
07:45
You'll see you soon.
07:49
Quite the same.
07:50
Outroinder
Recommended
6:07
|
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