Progressive Democratic Sen. Ed Markey is pushing legislation that would place stringent safety and environmental standards on natural gas pipelines across the country.
The “Pipeline Accountability, Safety and Environmental Standards Act,” to be introduced Thursday, would require the nation’s pipeline safety regulator to put greater weight on climate impacts and plans to transition to non-fossil fuel infrastructure when setting safety standards.
“As we work to transition to clean energy, we need to mitigate the significant risks that pipelines continue to pose to public safety and the environment,” said Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat. “If pipelines leak, break, or fail, then we need to plug, seal and boost the federal safety and accountability rules that protect our cities and towns.”
The legislation would require the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to enforce stringent safety backups, including rupture-mitigation valves in high-risk areas and an independent study on the safety of blending hydrogen into natural gas systems.
