Good Idea! Senate May Confirm New Pipeline Safety Chief - Position Empty Since 10/14

[hatrack]

The important but little-known agency responsible for ensuring the safety of oil pipelines hasn’t had anyone officially sitting in the top spot since October of 2014. But that will soon change, at least if a recent Senate hearing was any indication. On Wednesday, the Senate’s Commerce Committee held a confirmation hearing for Marie Therese Dominguez, slated to be the next administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). And though confirmation hearings for Obama administration appointees have often been tense, senators from both sides of the aisle appeared ready, if not eager, to confirm Dominguez for the position.

“I didn’t get any sense that anybody didn’t want to confirm her,” Carl Weimer, executive director of the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust, told ThinkProgress. “I think everybody recognizes that there’s a void there, and they want to fill that void.”

The House also seems to have bipartisan support to improve pipeline safety by tackling problems at the agency. At a subcommittee hearing last week, members of the House Energy and Commerce committee pressed acting PHMSA head Stacy Cummings on what they saw as a greater need for pipeline inspection and enforcement of rules.

Along with ensuring the safety of America’s 2.5 million-mile oil and gas pipeline system, PHMSA (pronounced “fim-sa”) is supposed to protect humans and the environment from oil trains and other transportation methods for hazardous materials. But the agency has faced serious challenges in implementing safety measures. POLITICO, which has covered the agency’s failures extensively, noted in May that the agency often allows industry to self-police, which has “helped stymie safety initiatives for years.”

EDIT

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/07/22/3683374/pipeline-safety-chief-confirmation-hearing/

[Nihil]

1. Yeah, that'll do it every time ...

> the agency often allows industry to self-police,
> which has “helped stymie safety initiatives for years.”