A jet fuel leak from a corroded segment of pipeline discovered in a Pennsylvania community earlier this year shows the need for higher fines and more transparency from oil companies, according to a bipartisan pair of lawmakers.
Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Tom Suozzi (D-N.Y.) have introduced legislation setting the civil penalty for liquid pipeline leaks at $2.5 million, more than nine times the current maximum fine. It would also require federal pipeline regulators to make information about pipeline leaks easier for the public to find online.
Fitzpatrick, in a news release, called the measures in the bill “the strongest pipeline safety reforms in more than a decade.”
The legislators say the measures in the bill are driven by the failures exposed by a leak on the 66-year-old Twin Oaks pipeline, which supplies a fuel terminal near the Newark airport. Sunoco is a subsidiary of Dallas-based Energy Transfer, one of the country’s largest pipeline companies, best known for building the Dakota Access oil pipeline.
