"The Hole in Obama's Pipeline Safety Plan"

"After 5 years of work, the administration has proposed a limited regulatory overhaul."

"After a ruptured oil pipeline went undiscovered for 17 hours, spilling 800,000 gallons of heavy oil into Michigan's Kalamazoo River in 2010, Congress ordered an audit that laid bare the industry's lackluster record of spotting leaks.

But after five years of work, the Obama administration has proposed a regulatory overhaul that fails to patch that hole in the nation’s pipeline safety net — a revelation that has been largely ignored amid Washington's obsession with the Keystone XL pipeline.

The proposal includes no minimum standards for how quickly the companies that own and operate the nation's sprawling network of oil pipelines must detect and plug leaks that can turn rivers, lakes and fields into hazardous-waste sites. Spills from pipelines carrying oil and other hazardous liquids have caused more than $2 billion in property damage in the past five years, while killing seven people and injuring 15, according to data from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration."

Elana Schor and Andrew Restuccia report for Politico November 9, 2015.