Bill Pascrell: “I rise this evening to command the attention of my colleagues to a potentially deadly and amazingly overlooked aspect of…”

“I rise this evening to command the attention of my colleagues to a potentially deadly and amazingly overlooked aspect of public safety, the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines in America. Unbeknownst to millions of Americans, their homes, their schools and communities are sitting atop hundreds of miles of pipelines that may explode at any moment if not properly constructed or if not properly maintained. We all received a rude awakening to the likelihood of tragedy this past August. A pipeline exploded one August morning on a camping ground in Carlsbad, New Mexico, taking the lives of 11 men, women and children. Our Speaker pro tempore knows firsthand of this tragedy. Forty-eight hours later, on the other side of the country, a bulldozer ruptured a gas pipeline on a construction site in North Carolina. Luckily, no serious injuries were reported there. Of the 226 people that died between 1989 and 1998, according to a report issued by the General Accounting Office, these were some of 1030 who were injured, $700 million in property was damaged. This is unbelievable. It is unacceptable. Madam Speaker, it is time for Congress to demand that the office of pipeline safety within the Department of Transportation do their job.”