WASHINGTON, D.C. – In his opening statement at today’s Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Surface Transportation, Freight, Pipelines, and Safety hearing titled “Pipeline Safety Reauthorization: Ensuring the Safe and Efficient Movement of American Energy,” Chairman Ted Cruz (R-Texas) discussed the critical role of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) in overseeing the safe transportation of oil, natural gas, and other hazardous liquids by pipelines across the U.S. Sen. Cruz emphasized how the hearing will help inform discussions for a pipeline safety reauthorization bill to ensure Americans have access to inexpensive, dependable, and safely transported energy.

Sen. Cruz criticized the Biden administration for failing to nominate a PHMSA administrator and attempting to shift the agency’s focus to climate change. Sen. Cruz applauded President Trump for nominating Paul Roberti to lead PHMSA and highlighted legislation he co-sponsored, led by Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), to protect American energy transportation from threats such as unauthorized valve turning or damaging pipelines under construction by radical environmentalists.

Here are Sen. Cruz’s remarks as prepared for delivery:

“Americans have been abundantly clear that they want cheaper, reliable, and safe energy.

“That is what we are here to discuss today.  What federal policies would ensure that the energy America needs is affordable, reliable, and safe?

“The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, is the agency within the Department of Transportation responsible for overseeing pipeline safety.

“This is no small task, with over 3 million miles of oil, natural gas, and other hazardous liquid pipelines across this country.

“Good federal policy would ensure that pipeline operators have a clear understanding of the safety requirements, federal regulations are based on data and address risk appropriately, and the regulations are cost effective.

“So what was the previous administration’s policy on pipeline safety?

“One maxim of politics is that, ‘personnel is policy.’

“If that’s the case, the Biden administration didn’t give a darn about pipeline safety because they did not nominate anyone to be PHMSA administrator.

“That’s right.  It’s not that they nominated someone then withdrew that person.  They just never bothered to nominate someone to lead the pipeline safety agency.

“Instead, they relied on a deputy administrator for the entire 4 years, a position that is not Senate confirmed.

“This was a shameful dereliction of duty. Unfortunately, this committee never held a pipeline safety hearing for those 4 years either, denying us any opportunity for oversight.

“President Trump has corrected this error by nominating Paul Roberti to lead PHMSA.  I hope to hold a hearing on his nomination soon.

“The unaccountable Biden PHMSA also attempted to remake the pipeline safety agency into a climate change agency, because every agency in the federal government under Biden was a climate change agency, instead of doing what its damn purpose was—not only duplicating the work of other agencies but disregarding the clear statutory language that Congress carefully negotiated.

“One egregious example of the Biden PHMSA’s overreach is the natural gas leak detection and repair rule, in which PHMSA included the regulation of underground natural gas storage and liquefied natural gas facilities, despite the statute explicitly not including those among the list of facilities to be addressed by that rulemaking.

“It's notable that more actions finalized during the Biden PHMSA were overturned by a U.S. circuit court of appeals than any other administration since Congress created the agency in 2004.

“Fortunately, President Trump stopped the leak detection rule before it could be promulgated.

“This Congress, we have the opportunity to debate and pass a pipeline safety reauthorization.

“Today’s hearing will help inform that discussion.

“One topic I expect to hear from the witnesses is the threat to pipeline safety from ecoterrorists.

“Though current statute has penalties against individuals, ‘damaging or destroying’ an operational pipeline, it does not address ecoterrorists who tamper with pipelines or damage pipelines under construction.

“The unauthorized turning of pipeline valves is a major safety concern that threatens the very environment the ecoterrorists claim to protect.

“Pipeline operators are forced to shut down their lines in response to these threats.

“I’m proud to cosponsor Senator Sheehy’s Safe and Secure Transportation of American Energy Act, which would close this gap in statute by adding ‘vandalizing, tampering with, disrupting the operation or construction of, or preventing the operation or construction of’ a pipeline to the list of actions for which penalties could be applied.

“I also want to hear about ways that pipeline operators are seeking to improve the safe operation of their pipelines, but for which outdated or misguided regulations are barriers to greater safety.

“I look forward to the witnesses’ testimony.”

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