Volume 148, No. 39 covering the 2nd Session of the 107th Congress (2001 - 2002) was published by the Congressional Record.
The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“PIPELINE AND TRANSMISSION STREAMLINING” mentioning the Environmental Protection Agency was published in the Senate section on pages S2602-S2603 on April 11, 2002.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
PIPELINE AND TRANSMISSION STREAMLINING
Mr. VOINOVICH. Madam President, I would like to spend a few minutes today talking about an amendment that I filed on the energy bill, amendment No. 3116. It is titled the ``Integrated Review of Energy Delivery Systems Act of 2002.''
This amendment, which Senator Landrieu has cosponsored, will streamline the siting process for energy pipelines and transmission lines.
As my colleagues know, one of the biggest challenges we face in ensuring that we have a consistent energy policy is ensuring we get energy to where it is needed. One of the problems we have had in previous winters has been the inability of energy supply to meet the demand solely because of bottlenecks in the distribution system.
Unless we address the situation, each winter places such as the northeastern part of the United States will continue to face high spikes in prices because their electric power grid and their pipeline system are both severely overtaxed. Removing this bottleneck will help stem huge potential problems down the road.
The Presiding Officer knows that one of the concerns we had last year was whether or not we would be able to get electricity into New York, into the Presiding Officer's part of the country, because of the issue of transmission lines. We were fortunate last summer was not that hot and the demand was not up, so there were not any brownouts or blackouts. But it is very important we move forward with siting these transmission lines so we can get power into the areas that need them.
The amendment Senator Landrieu and I have written would require all Federal agencies to coordinate the environmental reviews of energy pipelines and transmission lines so that the reviews take place simultaneously and a decision can be reached quickly on whether to move forward with the projects.
This amendment does not change underlying environmental statutes, nor does it change the environmental standards used for approving these projects. All current and future environmental laws are not changed by the amendment. Let me repeat that: Current and future environmental laws are not changed.
This amendment is based on a bill I introduced last year, S. 1580, the Environmental Streamlining of Energy Facilities Act of 2001, which would have applied to all energy facilities.
The idea for this amendment is from the environmental streamlining provisions of the highway bill, TEA-21. In that legislation, an amendment offered by Senators Wyden, Graham, and Bob Smith required the Transportation Department to coordinate all environmental reviews for highway projects so that the reviews would take place at the same time, saving years on major highway projects.
What we are trying to do today is apply this same concept to the building of pipelines and transmission lines. Today we are facing a shortage of pipelines, and it is becoming more difficult every day to site transmission lines. While this amendment would not change the laws of eminent domain or the environmental standards, what it will do is help expedite the review process.
I would like to briefly outline the provisions of my amendment.
First, we designate one lead agency to coordinate the review process. To eliminate the duplication efforts by agencies with oversight for the construction, operation, and maintenance of pipelines and transmission lines, a single Federal agency would be identified to coordinate all required paperwork and research for the environmental review of a proposed pipeline or transmission system.
The agencies involved in this process would include the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, FERC, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the Department of Transportation's Office of Pipeline Safety.
Agencies with partial oversight for a project would provide information from their area of expertise, while the lead agency would be responsible for establishing the deadlines, facilitating communication between the agencies, and defining the role of participating agencies during the environmental review process.
The lead agency, along with the Governor of the State where the application for the facility has been made, would work together to provide early notification to the public in order to identify and address any environmental concerns associated with the proposed system.
If there appears to be an environmental concern related to the permitting, the Council on Environmental Quality, in conjunction with the heads of the lead agency and participating agencies, would work together to resolve the matter within 30 days.
The problem is, when differences of opinion arise, it can take forever for these differences to be resolved. What we are suggesting in this legislation is that they would be brought to the Council on Environmental Quality, and they would sit down with the lead agency and participating agencies, and they would work together to get a resolution within 30 days.
The amendment directs coordination between the Federal, State, and local governments on particular projects. After a lead agency is appointed, it would be required to coordinate the environmental review process with input from Federal, State, and local governments. This includes the preparation of environmental impact statements, review analysis, opinions, determinations, or authorizations required under Federal law.
The amendment also allows for Federal delegation to the States. At the request of a Governor, and with the agreement of the applicant, a State agency may assume the role of lead agency. The Federal agency would delegate to the State agency the authority to prepare the Federal environmental impact statement or other environmental assessment following the procedures for a Federal lead agency.
Where there is a delegation of authority to the State, the lead agency continues to provide guidance and participation in preparing the final version of the environmental impact statement or environmental assessment. The lead Federal agency must also provide an independent evaluation of the statement or assessment prior to its approval.
Finally, the standard of review under State and Federal laws relating to the siting or construction or operation of a pipeline or transmission line would not be preempted, and the lead Federal agency is authorized to provide funding to the State when they assume the Federal responsibility.
It is vital that we act on the problem of expediting the siting of pipelines and transmission lines. This is a problem that plagues the entire country, including my home State of Ohio. However, in my view, the region which probably needs this provision the most is the Northeast.
According to a study by ISO New England Corporation, the nonprofit operator of New England's power grid has said that New England is increasing its natural gas demand from 16 percent in 1999, to a projected 45-percent demand in 2005. Unfortunately, they lack the local pipelines to distribute that gas to their markets.
The study says that there is no worry about any blackouts, unless nothing has changed one year from now. Three of the changes they need are: New gas-fired plants should be allowed to develop the ability to burn oil as a backup. The second is the regional pipeline system has to be expanded. And third, new compressors need to be added to existing pipelines to increase delivery capacity. So there is a genuine need there to move forward with providing pipelines so they can get gas into the Northeast, s ISO stated in its report issued in January of last year.
The chairman of the ISO New England, Mr. William Berry, said:
The long and complicated federal permitting process for building new interstate pipelines is a greater obstacle than the technical construction work.
The amendment Senator Landrieu and I introduced will help speed up, as Mr. Berry calls it, ``the long and complicated federal permitting process,'' and it will do so without jeopardizing any environmental protections and without changing any of our current environmental laws.
This amendment is supported by the American Gas Association, the American Chemistry Council, the Edison Electric Institute, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the Association of Oil Pipelines, and the National Association of Manufacturers.
This is a commonsense approach to requiring our Federal agencies to work together to get the permitting decisions considered at the same time. According to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, the United States will need 49,500 miles of new natural gas transmission lines between now and 2015. That is just to keep up with the large projected increase in demand for natural gas. It is also projected that our demand for natural gas will increase by 50 percent by the year 2020.
We need to act today to ensure that our energy can be delivered to American homes tomorrow. I hope this amendment will be accepted and we can move forward with providing both industry and American consumers the confidence that the Federal Government will not be an obstacle to the delivery of energy and that this can be done without changing or undermining our environmental laws.
I yield the floor.
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