John Dingell: “This committee takes pipeline safety very seriously.”

Only a piddling amount.

The urgency for pipeline safety is greater than ever.

The Dingell-Johnson Act implemented a new 10 percent excise tax on fishing rods, reels, related components and fishing tackle.

The goal Congress set then was unparalleled in all of history. Our country resolved to put an end to the decades--indeed, centuries--of neglect that had resulted in the extinction of the passenger pigeon and the Carolina parakeet, and the…