Lee Terry: “I urge rejection of this gutting amendment. What this would do is basically say you can't build any pipelines in this…”

“I urge rejection of this gutting amendment. What this would do is basically say you can't build any pipelines in this general area. I would like the gentleman from Vermont to know that there are many pipelines already running through this area, oil pipelines, natural gas pipelines; and also the other part that I would like to make regarding this amendment, this almost 2 feet high stack of materials is the draft environmental study, the supplemental environmental study, PHMSA's report. I can assure the gentleman that there is no other pipeline that has been studied to the point that this one has. It is as close to the best built pipeline as demanded by the agencies that have oversight. It has gone through a very thorough, thorough examination. The owners of this pipeline, TransCanada, have already agreed to not only increasing the thickness of the pipeline, itself, but additional pump stations to be able to detect when there's a leak. The pipeline reform bill will be reported out of committees later; and they would have to adhere to all of those rules, including something that we're discussing that all leaks have to be able to be onsite repaired within 1 hour. There's no way to design a perfect pipeline, but there are ways to make sure that if there is an issue, there's a rapid response, and that has been built in. Those are additional agreements.…”