Securing America's Future Energy: Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. SHERMAN. Mr. Speaker, as my colleague from California pointed out, we in Porter Ranch experienced the largest natural gas leak in history. Seven thousand families were evacuated for months, and yet, as I speak, there are no Federal regulations for underground natural gas storage facilities, and the State regulations are surprisingly minimal, even in famously green California. Why? Because the natural gas industry and regulators believed that natural gas was only a problem if you were within a few hundred feet.
What we have experienced with this multibillion-cubic-foot leak is 7,000 families evacuated from an area in a 5-mile radius because the volatile organic compounds and the mercaptan in that natural gas caused enormous health problems. That is why I went to the President of the United States and the Vice President at the caucus that we attended and got a public commitment that we would get regulations probably this year.
This legislation is important because it makes it clear that, while PHMSA has the regulatory authority to act, if they don't act, they are required to act within 2 years under this legislation.
I am pleased to say that the legislation includes a provision that I think is very important and which I have championed from the beginning, and that is to clarify that a State can adopt tougher standards than whatever the Federal Government adopts.
The legislation also officially establishes the Department of Energy's Aliso Canyon natural gas task force. That task force is already up and running. We are working with it. It is the brainchild of Senators Boxer and Feinstein, and I think formally establishing it in this regulation makes sense.
We need to adopt tough natural gas storage safety regulations for this entire country because Aliso Canyon, the storage facility next to Porter Ranch, was only the fifth largest natural gas storage field. There could be others. It could be in your district. That is why we need tough standards, and if we don't get them from PHMSA this year, we will have legislation requiring them within 2 years after the enactment of this legislation.
I urge a ``yes'' vote.
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