[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 147 (2001), Part 7]
[Senate]
[Page 10196]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



  TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE BELLINGHAM WASHINGTON PIPELINE EXPLOSION

  Mrs. MURRAY. Madam President, on June 10th families in Bellingham, WA 
and throughout my home State will mark the 2-year anniversary of a 
pipeline explosion that killed three young people.
  That tragic explosion changed three families forever. It shattered a 
community's sense of security. It showed us the dangers posed by aging, 
uninspected oil and gas pipelines. That disaster in Bellingham led me 
to learn about pipeline safety, to testify before Congress, to 
introduce the first pipeline safety bill of the 106th Congress, and 
ultimately to pass legislation in the Senate in September 2000 and 
again in February of this year.
  The Senate has done its job. Twice the Senate has passed the 
strongest pipeline safety measures to ever pass either chamber of 
Congress. Now it's time for the House and President Bush to do their 
part.
  The bill we passed in the Senate is a major step forward. It isn't 
everything everyone could want, but it is a significant move in the 
right direction. Specifically, the bill: Improves the Qualification and 
Training of Pipeline Personnel, Improves Pipeline Inspection and 
Prevention Practices, Requires internal inspection at least once every 
five years, Expands the Public's Right to Know about Pipeline Hazards, 
Raises the Penalties for Safety Violators, Enables States to Expand 
their Safety Efforts, Invests in New Technology to Improve Safety, 
Protects Whistle blowers, and Increases Funding for Safety Efforts by 
$13 billion.
  Here we are, 2 years after that disaster in Bellingham and the 
legislation we've passed in the Senate still hasn't become law. That is 
inexcusable. The Bush Administration just issued an energy plan that 
calls for 38,000 new miles of pipeline. As I told the Vice President in 
a letter recently, before we build thousands of miles of pipelines 
through our backyards, our neighborhoods and our communities, we must 
make sure those pipelines are safe.
  Unfortunately, the President's energy plan offered some rhetoric 
about pipeline safety, but no clear progress. I believe he missed an 
opportunity to articulate the Administration's specific proposals to 
make pipelines safer. I hope President Bush will agree that we 
shouldn't replace our current energy crisis with a pipeline safety 
crisis.
  Let me offer three ways President Bush can show his commitment to 
public safety. The first one is simple. We shouldn't backtrack on 
safety. Comprehensive new legislation which has passed the Senate and 
is pending in the House should represent the new minimum of safety 
standards. President Bush should not send us a proposal that is less 
stringent than this bill. President Bush should not undo the progress 
we made last year. And I hope he'll show a sensitivity to safety and 
environmental concerns that have been absent from his discussions on 
this issue to date.
  Second, President Bush should signal his support of pipeline safety 
legislation, which I hope will ultimately take the form of him signing 
a bill into law.
  Finally, President Bush's Department of Transportation should 
continue to issue administrative rules to make pipelines safer. The 
Clinton administration took several important administrative steps. I 
hope the Bush administration will show the same level of commitment.
  We do need to address our energy needs, but not at the expense of our 
safety. Let's make pipelines safe first, before we lay down more 
pipelines.
  If we learned anything last year, it's that we must not wait for 
another tragedy to force us to act. We must pass a comprehensive 
pipeline safety bill this year.
  In the coming weeks and months, as a member of Senate Transportation 
Appropriations Subcommittee, I will continue to do everything I can to 
improve pipeline safety by making sure that pipeline regulators have 
the resources they need to do their jobs effectively.
  I know that we can't undo what happened in Bellingham, but we can 
take the lessons from the Bellingham tragedy and put them into law so 
that families will know the pipelines near their homes are safe. Two 
years after the Bellingham disaster they deserve nothing less.

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