Washington, D.C. — The following are opening remarks, as prepared for delivery, from Ranking Member of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure Rick Larsen (D-WA) and Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines, and Hazardous Materials Frederica Wilson (D-FL), during today’s hearing, titled, “Ensuring Safety and Reliability: Examining the Reauthorization Needs of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.”
Video of Larsen’s and Wilson’s opening statements can be found here and here.
More information on the hearing can be found here.
Ranking Member Larsen:
Thank you, Chairman Nehls, for calling this hearing on pipeline safety and for your kind words about our colleague and friend, Representative Donald M. Payne, Jr. We continue to mourn today after his death just two weeks ago.
Don was a leader on the PIPES Act of 2023 that our Committee voted unanimously to advance in December.
He strongly supported ensuring PHMSA and the state pipeline safety programs have the funding they need to do their work.
Don also helped lay the groundwork for strong rail funding in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Because of Don’s work, we will see replacements of century-old rail bridges and tunnels on the Northeast Corridor, including the suite of Gateway projects.
He was a friend and advocate for rail workers, supporting their bid for sick leave, higher wages and improved working conditions.
His efforts helped support a historic agreement that would strengthen the safety and quality of life for our essential rail workers.
Don’s work to advance rail safety legislation, especially in the wake of the derailment in East Palestine, will remain an important part of his legacy that Congress must continue to realize.
On June 10, 1999, an Olympic pipeline explosion in Bellingham, Washington, in my district, claimed the lives of two 10-year-old boys and an 18-year-old young man. The explosion also released 237,000 gallons of gasoline into a creek that flowed through Whatcom Falls Park in Bellingham, Washington.
This explosion spurred my commitment, which has been steadfast for over 20 years, to the highest level of pipeline safety.
For my entire tenure in Congress, I have fought to reduce the risk of pipeline incidents, promote transparency of pipeline safety information for local communities and increase accountability for pipeline operators.
According to PHMSA data, in the past 20 years there have been 12,722 pipeline incidents claiming 278 lives and causing $11.4 billion in property damage.
While we work on the PIPES 2023 bill, the pipeline industry continues to experience deadly accidents causing damage to the environment.
According to the Pipeline Safety Trust, 2023 was the deadliest year for pipelines in two decades.
On March 24, 2023, a UGI pipeline explosion in West Reading, Pennsylvania killed seven people, injured 11, displaced three families from a neighboring apartment building and evacuated many more from the area.
In November 2023, Third Coast Infrastructure released 1.1 million gallons of crude oil from an underwater pipeline into an “unusually sensitive area” in the Gulf of Mexico about 20 miles southeast of Venice, Louisiana.
More recently, in January 2024, two homes less than a mile from each other in Jackson, Mississippi, exploded three days apart from Atmos Energy pipeline leaks. The first home explosion resulted in one fatality and one injury. The resulting fire from the second explosion spread to a neighboring home.
These incidents happened after Atmos had identified leaks in their pipelines in the area but failed to repair them.
Putting safety first means greater oversight and accountability of the activities of pipeline operators. It also means greater transparency for local communities and the public.
PIPES 2023 accomplishes this by creating an Office of Public Engagement—an idea championed by my colleague Representative Strickland—and requires PHMSA to review operator emergency response plans.
Improving safety means preventing incidents. PHMSA and the state pipeline safety programs need the resources and staff to inspect pipelines, conduct investigations when incidents occur, and take appropriate enforcement actions.
PIPES 2023 does this by increasing the authorizations for both PHMSA and state pipeline safety organizations. I am pleased our bill includes $56 million for state pipeline safety programs over four years.
I appreciate each of our witnesses being here to talk about the PIPES Act of 2023.
I want to welcome PHMSA Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown, who visited Washington’s Second District to tour the Olympic pipeline site in Bellingham, and Bill Caram of the Pipeline Safety Trust whose organization was created in response to that tragedy and is headquartered in my district in Bellingham. I also want to thank PHMSA and their response to the Conway, Washington pipeline leak that happened last year. Cleanup continues but nears the end for that.
In addition to its safety initiatives, the BIL created the first ever Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization grant program.
PHMSA has announced $588 million for 167 projects from the $1 billion made available to municipalities and community-owned utilities to repair or replace natural gas pipelines and help reduce incidents and improve safety.
Pipelines play a critical role in the nation’s infrastructure and the daily lives of Americans. We are here today to make sure the national pipeline network safely delivers energy across the country. I look forward to today’s discussion.
Ranking Member Wilson:
Thank you, Chair Nehls, for holding this hearing today and thank you, Ranking Member Larsen, for your faith in me.
It is with a heavy heart that I take on the role of Ranking Member of this Subcommittee.
Congressman Donald Payne Jr. was not just a colleague but a cherished friend whose legacy I am dedicated to honoring and advancing. His exemplary leadership on the Railroads Subcommittee sets a standard of excellence that I am committed to upholding and building upon.
For many years, we were soldiers in the army to uplift Black men and boys, whether that be Trayvon Martin or fighting for health disparities among Black men and boys.
He fought the good fight to bring back our girls from Africa. I sat next to him in committee for years and we were table mates every year at the Congressional Black Caucus gala, and he shared many memories with me.
He was so proud to be the father of triplets and to let me know he married a Florida girl.
I will miss him, and I am committed to honoring his legacy and continuing his work on this committee.
As we all know, part of his mission was to ensure the safety of all people and he had a goal of never wanting to miss a vote, regardless of his health.
And speaking on the floor every day to honor his constituents. He loved his constituents, and he was a man for all seasons, and we will miss him dearly.
Before coming to Congress, I was a school principal, and nothing is more important to me than the safety and education of our students.
I do not want to see any pipeline incidents, but I am particularly concerned when they occur at or near a school.
At least two recent incidents in the last year happened at or near schools—one was near an elementary school in Conway, Washington and another was at a school in the Mississippi Delta in Merigold, Mississippi.
Just last month in Merigold, there was a pipeline explosion at Hayes Cooper Center, a pre-K through 8th grade school. Although no children were injured, two school staff members were injured and taken to the hospital for treatment.
I want to know how pipeline operators are working with communities and schools to prevent any such incidents. Are they working with the impacted schools for additional tutoring or student support for those children’s lost instruction time? What about their mental health? How does having to evacuate impact students’ learning?
With regard to the PIPES 2023 bill, I supported the bill because it has important provisions that Mr. Payne championed, and I associate myself with his work on these efforts.
Among them, the bill includes increased funding for the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to support the Office of Pipeline Safety for its important safety mission. I am proud that this bipartisan pipeline safety bill has a strong focus on pipeline safety.
The bill also makes changes to the competitive academic agreement program to provide funding for academic research and develop the pipeline safety workforce of the future. The changes will help most historically black colleges and universities and other minority-serving institutions participate in the program.
These are positive changes, and I urge Congress to adopt the measures.
Lastly, I want to say to Mayor Kaag of West Reading, who is leading her city through the aftermath of the deadliest pipeline explosion the country experienced in 2023, thank you for watching. I am sorry for your loss. Seven people died after showing up for work to make chocolate, 10 people were injured, and I understand in your volunteer firefighting capacity, you also showed up to help with the immediate emergency response.
I look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and I yield back my time.
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