New York legislators to mandate tighter pipeline security

The discovery of the terrorist plot to blow up a jet-fuel pipeline at Kennedy Airport sent shivers down the spine of those in charge of guranteeing the safety of New York State’s critical infrastructure. Two lawmakers — Senator Dean Skelos (R-Rockville Centre) and Assembleyman Michael Gianaris (D-Astoria) — have introduced legislation directing the state Homeland Security Office to assess protections for each pipeline or storage facility and recommend improvements to the owner. If these remedies are not taken, the owner would face fines and other penalties from the Public Service Commission. Initial reviews are due next year and then in five-year intervals.

Newsday’s James Madore reports that it appears that the bill has the support of majorities in both houses of the legislature, and was drafted with help from Governor Eliot Spitzer’s administration.

The bill was introduced ten days after law enforcement officials disclosed an alleged plan by four men with ties to Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago to kill and injure hundreds of people by exploding a forty-mile pipeline supplying Kennedy Airport. New York currently has no oversight of pipeline security, which is now handled by energy companies. They assess the risk and pay for surveillance.

We note that Buckeye Partners, owner of the Kennedy pipeline, is insisting that its security measures, upgraded after the 9/11 attacks, are sufficient. The company operates more than 5,000 miles of pipes in 18 states, and has fully cooperated with police investigating the alleged conspiracy at Kennedy. “We’ve taken all reasonable and cost-effective steps to make sure that our assets are secure,” said spokesman Stephen Milbourne. “Most of the problems with pipelines have been caused by contractors who have dug up the line.”

Michael Balboni, Spitzer’s security czar — and a former Republican senator from East Williston who sponsored the chemical storage law in 2004 — said that “We’ve had excellent compliance” with the bill he sponsored. He praised the pipeline bill, saying, “anytime that we can spot a gap in our security that affects critical infrastructure and develop a response, which is both practical and useful, it is a very positive step.”