"Members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee are blaming each other for an impasse in a pipeline safety reauthorization bill that many thought would breeze through Congress.
Democrats are “surrendering, sacrificing,” said Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), chairman of Energy and Commerce’s subcommittee on energy. “But they [Republicans] still don’t want to come our way.”
But Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), ranking member of the energy subcommittee, wrote in a recent op-ed: “The truth is Republicans have remained at the negotiating table, ready and willing to meet with our Democratic colleagues. Any suggestion to the contrary is flat-out wrong.”
Congress was set to reauthorize the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)—the agency responsible for inspecting close to 3 million miles of pipelines carrying oil, natural gas, and hazardous liquids—by Sept. 30. But the Safer Pipelines Act of 2019 (H.R. 3432), remains stalled in committee."
Tiffany Stecker reports for Bloomberg Environment October 16, 2019.
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