The Senate last night sent a bipartisan pipeline safety deal to President Obama's desk, tying a bow around one of the divided 112th Congress' few collaborative bright spots on energy policymaking.

Passed by unanimous consent, the legislation (H.R. 2845) reauthorizes regulatory activities of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and doubles the maximum penalties it can impose on companies found to violate safety standards. PHMSA will also be required under the bill to publicly disclose inspection data for the pipe mileage it oversees among the nation's 2 million-plus miles of oil and gas lines.

Senators last night joined members of the two House committees involved in crafting the deal, Energy and Commerce and Transportation and Infrastructure, in hailing its swift passage amid a year of high-profile pipeline ruptures in Michigan, California, Montana and Pennsylvania.

"This is a huge step forward for the safety of America's pipelines," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), whose subpanel chairmanship on the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee made him a key member of talks on the deal. "Passage of this bill is a major victory for the public safety of our neighborhoods and I look forward to seeing it signed into law."

The bill empowers PHMSA, a part of the Transportation Department, to proscribe new regulations for leak detection and integrity management of pipelines but includes language ensuring congressional authority over the former set of rules, as well as another potential new minimum for pipeline burial under water crossings. Questions related to depth of cover for water-crossing pipelines emerged after a July pipeline break that spilled crude into Montana's Yellowstone River.

The pipeline safety deal also sets up new PHMSA rules requiring the installation of automatic or remote-controlled shutoff valves on gaslines, an issue raised after last year's fatal rupture of an aging line in San Bruno, Calif. Older gaslines would be subjected to pressure-verification tests but not specifically required to install the valves, recommended by the National Transportation Safety Board after the San Bruno disaster.

Another provision of the bill that drew criticism from a pipeline safety advocate last week would allow PHMSA to shield parts of operators' emergency response plans from public release if regulators deemed them proprietary or security-sensitive information (E&E Daily, Dec. 12).

Oil and gasline industry groups welcomed the Senate action, which came 24 hours after unanimous House passage of the accord.

"We are confident that President Obama will sign this bill -- one of the few energy-related pieces of legislation to pass Congress this year -- into law," Interstate Natural Gas Association of America President Don Santa said in a statement.