Robert Smith: “as a co-sponsor of S. 235, the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2001, I would like to urge my colleagues to support…”

“as a co-sponsor of S. 235, the Pipeline Safety Improvement Act of 2001, I would like to urge my colleagues to support this balanced bipartisan bill. I am a new member of the Senate Commerce Committee, and have been privileged to be appointed as Chair of the Surface Transportation and Merchant Marine Subcommittee. I have also been a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for a number of years. In the past few years, I have heard numerous witnesses discuss the need to obtain more supply and build more energy infrastructure to service the increasing energy demand. On a number of occasions I have heard, for example, that demand in the natural gas market is expected to increase from 22 trillion cubic feet to 30 trillion cubic feet by around 2010 to 2012 and that the interstate natural gas pipeline industry is having to spend over $2.5 billion per year to build the necessary pipeline and storage facilities to meet this demand. More recently, these issues have taken on a sense of urgency as the electricity problems in California have reached beyond that state to affect the availability of electricity in Oregon and to significantly increase the rates that my constituents are paying at this time. I also know that it is important to assure the public that both new pipelines and existing pipelines are safe.”