Knight Applauds Natural Gas Storage Safety Report

Press Release

Representative Steve Knight (CA-25) commended a report released on Tuesday by a federal task force regarding safety at natural gas storage facilities like Aliso Canyon and Honor Rancho. Knight says the report is a crucial step toward creating adequate safety standards to prevent future gas leaks.

Earlier this year Rep. Knight introduced H.R. 4429, the Natural Gas Leak Prevention Act, which would require the Secretary of Transportation to issue safety standards for underground natural gas storage facilities to prevent gas leaks similar to the one that occurred in Porter Ranch last October. The language in Knight's measure was included in the SAFE PIPES Act, a larger bill by Senator Deb Fischer (NE), along with a provision that would create a multi-agency task force to address issues around the Aliso Canyon gas leak.

After the SAFE PIPES Act was signed into law last June, the federal task force set out to analyze the causes of the leak and explore preventative measures. On Tuesday the task force released its report along with recommendations for preventing future leaks, which will be the basis for the safety standards that Knight's bill calls for.

"We cannot undo the damage that was done to Porter Ranch, but we can and must take action to prevent another incident from happening in our communities ever again," said Knight. "The recommendations in this report are a huge step toward developing federal standards to address safety concerns at natural gas storage facilities like Aliso Canyon in Porter Ranch and Honor Rancho in Santa Clarita. While the report does not address every single concern shared by myself and the community, I am pleased with the Task Force's work and look forward to working with federal, state, and local agencies in improving and implementing these recommendations."

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