Frank Lautenberg

I want to express my condolences to all of those who have lost loved ones in the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe.

You know, I respect so much the fact that safety has been improved over these years, but nevertheless we have a question here about the number of accidents since 2006.

One of the things that happened in my State of New Jersey, that big accident took place in 1994 and that raised the recognition.

I wonder--this question can be answered by any one of you--whether or not in those types of buildings there ought to be something internal, not unlike a fire safety cannister or something like that.

Given what you've said and what you've heard today, can you commit to working with us, with the Committee, to find a practical solution on this issue?

One of the things that I've worked on since I've pretty much been in the Senate, and that is guaranteeing that the public has a right to know about what's in their area in terms of chemicals or emissions, etcetera.

BP's oil spill in the Gulf has shown that the company's response plan was completely inadequate.

In 2006, in the PIPES Act, I included the requirement that excess flow valves be installed on gas lines that serve single-family homes.

I look forward to hearing how the pipeline safety programs Congress put in place are working and how they can be improved.

I authored a provision in the 2006 PIPES Act that required the devices for single-family homes and I think there is universal approval of this requirement.

We are alerted to the fact that at about 3 o'clock a vote may occur, so we'll try to stick to our time limitations here.

We want to make sure that we have the tools on the government side to do what we have to do to ensure as much protection as possible.

This tragedy, this calamity that has taken place, puts us all on alert and we have to be much more careful.

Thank you very much.

The question is one of approving the location. How can we get that done when two agencies with different regulations are responsible?

Despite the moratorium on offshore drilling, today's New York Times reports that BP is planning to move forward with a risky drilling project off the coast of Alaska.

Good afternoon, everyone. I want to welcome you, those who are here, to this hearing on pipeline safety.

Thanks very much, Mr. D'Alessandro.

We have to be on constant alert there.

I will continue to fight to make sure that polluters pay for the work that they did.

I still believe that.

How much can it be worth to take care of children, to prevent them from that kind of exposure?

Yes, except that more was needed.

We pay for it with Federal money.

The fact is that we were cleaning up sites at a heck of a rate.