ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE FUND CRITICIZES HOUSE PASSAGE OF PIPELINE ACT

(27 Sept., 1996 — Washington) The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) today criticized House passage of S.1505 , the “Accountable Pipeline Safety and Partnership Act of 1996, ” saying the bill “benefits the oil and gas pipeline industry at the expense of the environment and public safety. ” S.1505 was approved by the Senate last night.

“The oil and gas pipeline industry has a history of problems, ” said EDF environeer Lois Epstein. In only the past year, two teenagers were killed in a pipeline accident in Texas in August, 34,000 fish died from a pipeline spill in South Carolina in June, and in May the Iroquois Pipeline company was issued the biggest fine for an environmental crime since the Exxon Valdez. Depite this terrible record, the pipeline industry got just what it wanted in this bill.”

The hearing on Senate bill S. 1505 did not include testimony from anyone representing the public affected by pipelines, and no House hearings were held on the bill. S. 1505, through its regulatory reform provisions, will virtually ensure that no environmental protection standards will ever be issued by the federal government.

Since existing pipeline law prohibits states from issuing standards more stringent than those at the federal level, the pipeline industry “has government where it wants it, with a weak federal agency that can’t issue new regulations that protect public health and safety and a prohibition on states issuing stronger regulations, ” said Epstein.