House passes Schauer pipeline safety bill

The U.S. House of Representatives passed Rep. Mark Schauer’s Corporate Liability and Emergency Accident Notification (CLEAN) Act last night. The bill tightens regulation on pipelines carrying hazardous materials, shortening the time a company has to report problems to the government and increasing fines for safety violations.

A press release from the legislator’s office said:

“On July 26, Enbridge Energy Partners spilled one million gallons of heavy crude oil into the Kalamazoo River watershed, and it will be years before my community fully recovers,” said Schauer. “Public health impacts could have been reduced and environmental responses substantially improved had the spill been reported more quickly. We need to make sure there is no delay in future responses to these types of disasters.”

The bill was introduced in direct response to the Enbridge spill in Marshall, Michigan, which is in Schauer’s district. Current law states that companies must report a pipeline incident “immediately,” which is defined in regulation as the “earliest practicable moment.” Schauer’s CLEAN Act would retain the “immediate” requirement, but create an outside cap of one hour after the discovery of a leak.

Companies that exceed the one-hour requirement or violate other pipeline safety requirements would face a penalty of $250,000, up from the current $100,000, and penalties would increase to $2.5 million from $1 million for companies having multiple related violations.

The bill would also increase transparency by creating a public, searchable internet database of all reportable incidents involving gas or hazardous liquid pipelines, holding companies accountable for the damage they cause.