Energy pipelines safe, vital to nation's economic health, advocates say

November 21, 2016

As the debate over new energy-infrastructure projects garners headlines across the country, attention has turned to the safety record of oil and natural gas pipelines.

According to the Association of Oil Pipelines (AOPL), more than 16 billion barrels of crude oil and other petroleum products were transported by pipeline in 2014 — and 99.9 percent of those products were delivered safely.

John Stoody, vice president of AOPL, told TI News Daily that pipelines are “inherently safe” if they are properly maintained. He cited the testimony of former National Transportation Safety Board Chair Deborah Hersman, who currently is president and CEO of the National Safety Council.

Hersman told a U.S. Senate committee in 2013 that “if (a pipeline) is adequately maintained and inspected, age is not an issue.”

Tony Caldarelli, a former army captain and volunteer chairman for Pennsylvania Vets4Energy, told TI News Daily that the pipelines are necessary to maintain our country's "new position as an energy superpower."

“We must make the infrastructure investments that can store and transport our energy to where it is needed,” Caldarelli said. “There are many military instances where energy supply was the deciding factor of winners and losers – there is no reason for that to happen inside the U.S.A. anymore.”

During a U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing on oil and gas infrastructure in June, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the committee's chair, highlighted the need for and safety of energy pipelines.

"Without infrastructure, we cannot move vital resources from Point A to Point B, and while some would contend otherwise, we know for a fact that pipelines are the safest and most efficient way to move those resources," Murkowski said at the hearing. "Without proper infrastructure, energy will be unnecessarily unaffordable, scarce, dirty, limited and insecure."

Read entire article at TI News Daily.