Federal/ State Legislation

Subscribe to Federal/ State Legislation

Last week, Annie Kuster (D-NH) along with four other Democratic members of Congress introduced a proposed Natural Gas Act (NGA) amendment aimed at banning the use of eminent domain for construction or expansion of interstate natural gas pipeline infrastructure through lands subject to conservation restrictions in favor of, or owned by, non-profit entities or local governments. The proposed legislation is “The Protecting Our Conserved Lands Act of 2019.”…
Continue Reading Proposed Legislation Seeks to Block Pipelines From Vaguely-Defined “Conservation” Lands without Considering Adverse Impacts of Re-Routes

Over the past several decades, significant tension has developed between the federal role in overseeing and authorizing certain types of energy infrastructure projects and states’ roles in regulating water quality under the cooperative federalism structure of the Clean Water Act (CWA or the Act). This tension has played itself out in various contexts, but the…

Recently proposed legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives would require FERC to revise its review process for proposed natural gas pipeline expansion projects to include additional analysis of cumulative impacts in a single region or State and extended environmental monitoring.  While this bill is unlikely to gain traction in the Republican-controlled House, it is indicative of an ongoing debate about the need for and environmental impacts of new pipeline construction, and the role of both federal and state regulators in reviewing and approving such projects—a debate that has attracted national attention in the wake of the Obama administration’s rejection of the Keystone XL project in late 2015.
…
Continue Reading House Bill Reflects Ongoing Resistance to New Pipeline Construction

Congress has approved amendments to the Pipeline Safety Act (PSA), reauthorizing PHMSA’s pipeline safety program through 2019. The bill is expected to reach the President’s desk soon to be signed into law. S. 2276 was approved in the House of Representatives by voice vote in the first week of June, representing a compromise between two House committees on several topics. The Senate took up the bill and approved it by unanimous vote on June 13, 2016.
…
Continue Reading Pipeline Safety Legislation Headed for the President’s Signature

Several legislative developments of significance to the pipeline and energy transportation industries are in progress, with the introduction of a bipartisan pipeline safety reauthorization bill in the House, the passage of a bipartisan energy bill in the Senate, and the passage of a bill in the Senate that provides for the use of drones to monitor pipelines and other energy infrastructure.
…
Continue Reading Legislative Action on Transportation and Energy Bills

As the U.S. House of Representatives considers reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Act (PSA), a House Transportation & Infrastructure Subcommittee requested input from the Department of Transportation (DOT) Office of Inspector General (OIG) on ways to enhance the enforcement of criminal pipeline safety laws under the PSA.  In a letter dated March 8, 2016, DOT Inspector General (IG) Scovel provided two recommendations: (1) that the mental state required for prosecutions under the Pipeline Safety Act be reduced from “knowingly and willfully” to “recklessly;” and (2) that the law provide for greater whistleblower incentives, such as the one recently enacted by the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act).
…
Continue Reading DOT IG Recommends Lowering Pipeline Safety Criminal Liability Standard to ‘Reckless’

The ongoing leak of methane from Southern California Natural Gas Company’s Aliso Canyon/Porter Ranch underground storage field near Los Angeles has drawn national attention to underground natural gas storage, triggering regulatory and legislative efforts to regulate these facilities at federal and state levels.
Continue Reading Another Step Closer to Federal Regulation of Underground Storage

Congress passed a $1.1 trillion spending bill (H.R. 2029) that contains a provision to end the United States’ ban on crude oil exports and earmarks for funding the federal pipeline safety program.  The measure passed in the House (316-113) and the Senate (64-33) on Friday, December 18, and was signed by President Obama later that day.
…
Continue Reading Crude Oil Export Ban Repealed

Further Regulation of Underground Natural Gas Storage is under consideration by several state and federal agencies. Gas storage helps moderate supply and demand. As a result, natural gas and related gas products have been stored underground for many years, either in depleted oil or gas field formations, aquifers or salt caverns. Above ground aspects of this storage are regulated by a variety of federal and state agencies, but to date there has not been significant regulation of underground storage facility siting, construction or operation. Several states have been considering new regulations over underground gas storage (e.g., Texas and Kansas), and a recent leak from SoCal’s Aliso Canyon gas storage facility near Los Angeles has drawn national attention to the issue generally.
…
Continue Reading Additional Underground Natural Gas Storage Regulation Contemplated