Ed Whitfield: “I do rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. First of all, ``minor'' is an undefined term that gives little…”

“I do rise in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. First of all, ``minor'' is an undefined term that gives little certainty to agencies or industry. One of the things that we are trying to get away from is the uncertainty of a Presidential permit and be treated like natural gas pipelines. As I said, in H.R. 3301, we are trying to treat all of them exactly the same: transmission lines, oil pipelines, natural gas lines. I would also say that, under the gentleman's amendment, any modifications, such as volume expansion, downstream or upstream interconnections, or adjustments to maintain flow, would potentially be required to obtain a Presidential permit for the modification, even if the original project already has one. Then even operational changes may be subject to a Presidential permit, and ownership changes would be. So, for those reasons, as I said, I respectfully would oppose the gentleman's amendment and ask the Members to oppose it. I yield back the balance of my time.”