US Transportation Secretary Tours San Bruno Blast Site

After meeting with victims of a gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people in San Bruno last September, Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood said on Thursday he will "redouble efforts" to impose stricter regulations on the nation's natural gas pipeline infrastructure by the end of summer.

LaHood, whose office oversees pipeline safety throughout the U.S., called today's meeting with residents of the Glenview neighborhood one of the saddest days in his 35 years of public service.

"My heart is full of sadness after meeting with the families," LaHood said, standing in front of San Francisco Fire Department Station No. 22, which dispatched firefighters to the Sept. 9 disaster. "I heard every one of their stories."

LaHood, who was invited to tour the blast site by Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo, said he will work with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to develop stronger regulations for the nation's patchwork of natural gas pipelines.

The new regulations are meant to close loopholes for utility companies that try to evade safety standards.

"We need to fix the American pipeline system," LaHood said. "We in the Obama Administration will redouble our efforts on pipeline safety."

LaHood applauded Speier's efforts to introduce pipeline safety legislation in Congress, but said his office would impose new industry standards by the end of August, likely before any potential passage of Speier's bill.

"As a 14-year member of Congress, I know how long it takes to pass legislation," LaHood said.

The secretary stopped short of revealing in detail what his department's new regulations would include, but said they were likely to require that utilities perform a top-to-bottom review of all natural gas transmission pipelines, provide easy public access to information regarding pipeline locations, and replace all pipelines that are determined to be in critical condition.

"We know what needs to be done," he said. "We're not going to sit around and wait."

Speier and LaHood also toured a PG&E work site in San Francisco's Sunset District, where crews were in the process of replacing aging gas distribution lines that were installed in the 1940s.

The work is part of PG&E's commitment to replace more than 270 miles of gas distribution lines that run through San Francisco's densely populated neighborhoods by 2014, which started after Line 132 ruptured and exploded in San Bruno.

"The sad part of this story is that it could have been prevented," Speier said, standing between LaHood, PHMSA administrator Cynthia Quarterman and San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White. Speier said that the California Public Utilities Commission has been ineffective at regulating PG&E and other natural gas industry providers, and that the lack of oversight led to the San Bruno explosion.

She called the disaster "a wake-up call for the entire country" and said she has made it her personal cause to raise the bar on pipeline safety.

"We will never forget the lives lost, lives scarred, and town ravaged," Speier said.

-Bay City News