Pipeline Safety: The Office of Pipeline Safety Is Changing How It Oversees the Pipeline Industry.

摘要

The Office of Pipeline Safety, within the Department of Transportation, administers the national regulatory program to ensure the safe transportation of natural gas and hazardous liquids by pipeline. The Office has traditionally carried out its responsibility by issuing minimum standards and enforcing them uniformly across these pipelines. This approach involves identifying and addressing specific risks faced by individual pipeline companies rather than applying uniform standards regardless of risks. The act allowed the Office to exempt companies in the program from the uniform standards but did not eliminate the standards. Concerned about the recent accident in Bellingham, you asked us to review the Offices performance in regulating pipeline safety. Accordingly, we examined (1) the extent of major pipeline accidents from 1989 through 1998 (the most recent data available), (2) the Offices implementation of the 1996 acts risk management demonstration program, (3) the Offices inspection and enforcement efforts since the acts implementation, and (4) the Offices responsiveness to recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board (the Safety Board) and to statutoryrequirements designed to improve pipeline safety. In addition, you asked us to provide information on the current status of the investigation of the accident in Bellingham. This latter information is provided in appendix I.