2 Years After Exxon Mayflower Spill, Will Feds Toughen Pipeline Rules?

"If a new rule takes effect, about 95 percent of all pipelines would be subject to stricter safety testing because of their age, location and other factors."

"It's been two years since a broken 1940s ExxonMobil pipeline flooded an Arkansas neighborhood with Canada's heaviest oil, and the ripple effects of the spill have made it to Washington D.C., where regulators are poised to end decades of complacency by addressing the dangers of older pipelines across the country.

For the first time, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is proposing a rule to address problematic vintage pipe and other obvious risks that were factors in the rupture of ExxonMobil’s Pegasus pipeline in Mayflower, Ark.

'The Pegasus spill seemed to be a tipping point,' said Carl Weimer, executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit watchdog group. 'PHMSA is now telling pipeline companies, 'here's what you should think about if you have older pipelines, and when you should replace them,'—and you never would have heard that coming out of their mouths before Mayflower.'"

Elizabeth Douglass reports for InsideClimate News March 30, 2015.