In advance of a Senate Commerce Committee Hearing on reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Act, Senators Markey, Warren, and Blumenthal announced legislation to address distribution pipelines and risks associated with the September 2018 Merrimack Valley incident.  The Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act of 2019, named after a man who died in the incident, would impact various aspects of distribution pipelines, including emergency response, integrity management, operation and maintenance, safety management systems, and recordkeeping.  Further, for all pipeline operators the bill would increase civil penalties under the statute by a factor of 100, from $200,000 per day to $2 million per day and for a maximum of $2 million to $200 million for a related series of events.  Even though the majority of the bill’s provisions are limited to distribution pipelines, certain of these proposals could be expanded more broadly during the reauthorization process to apply to gathering and transmission pipelines.
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