Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. KAINE. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bipartisan bill to make the process of siting natural gas pipelines fairer, more transparent, and more responsive to landowner concerns.

For some time now, I have been listening to Virginians with passionate views on the process involved in permitting the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley Pipelines. For various reasons, many oppose one or both of these projects while others support these projects. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, FERC, is tasked with analyzing all the issues--purpose and need for a project, impacts on people 1iving on the route, potential risks to the environment or property-- and deciding what course best serves the public interest.

From listening to all sides, I have concluded that while reasonable people may reach different conclusions, FERC's public input process is flawed and could be better. Accordingly, this legislation proposes several steps to address several shortcomings, all of which were originally brought to my attention by Virginia constituents. For instance, this bill requires programmatic analysis of pipelines proposed around the same time and in the same geographic vicinity so that the full impacts of multiple projects can be analyzed. It requires a greater number of public comment meetings so that citizens are not required to commute long distances to meetings at which they must speed through just a few minutes of remarks on these complex topics. It ensures that affected landowners are given proper notice and compensation. It guarantees that landowner complaints will be heard before construction commences. And it clarifies the circumstances under which eminent domain should and should not be used.

I am pleased to be joined by my colleague Senator Mark Warner on this bill, which is an update to a version we introduced in the 115th Congress. The public deserves reasonable opportunity to weigh in on energy infrastructure projects, and we are heeding calls by our constituents to make this process fairer and more transparent without mandating a particular outcome.

I encourage the Senate to consider this legislation, not to pave the way for pipelines nor to throw up insurmountable roadblocks to them, but to give the public greater certainty that the federal government's infrastructure decisions are fair and transparent.

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