By: Armbrister S.B. No. 480
A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
1-1 relating to the jurisdiction of the Railroad Commission of Texas
1-2 over pipeline safety.
1-3 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
1-4 SECTION 1. Article 6053-1, Revised Statutes, is amended to
1-5 read as follows:
1-6 Art. 6053-1. Transportation of gas and gas pipeline
1-7 facilities; safety standards. (A) For the purpose of providing
1-8 exclusive state control over safety standards and practices
1-9 applicable to the transportation of gas and all gas pipeline
1-10 facilities within the borders of this state to the maximum degree
1-11 permissible under the federal Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of
1-12 1968 (49 U.S.C. Section 60101 et seq.) or any successor
1-13 legislation, the Railroad Commission of Texas is hereby expressly
1-14 granted the power to describe or adopt by regulation safety
1-15 standards for all such transportation of gas and gas pipeline
1-16 facilities which are not subject to exclusive federal control, to
1-17 require record maintenance and reports and to inspect records and
1-18 facilities to determine compliance with such safety standards, and,
1-19 from time to time, to make certifications and reports and to take
1-20 any other requisite action in accordance with <Section 5(a) of> the
1-21 Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 or any successor
1-22 legislation.
1-23 (B) All terms employed in this Article which are defined in
1-24 the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968 shall have the
2-1 definition prescribed therein.
2-2 (C) The Attorney General is authorized, on behalf of the
2-3 Railroad Commission, to enforce said safety standards by injunction
2-4 restraining violations thereof (including the restraint of
2-5 transportation of gas or the operation of a pipeline facility).
2-6 Any violation of such safety standards shall further be subject to
2-7 a civil penalty, payable to the State of Texas, in an amount not to
2-8 exceed $25,000 for each such violation for each day that such
2-9 violation persists, except that the maximum civil penalty shall not
2-10 exceed $500,000 for any related series of violations. Any such
2-11 civil penalty may be compromised by the Attorney General in
2-12 consideration of the appropriateness of the penalty to the size of
2-13 the business of the person charged, the gravity of the violation,
2-14 and the good faith of the person charged in attempting to achieve
2-15 compliance after notification of violation.
2-16 (D) A municipality or county may not adopt or enforce an
2-17 ordinance that establishes safety standards or practices applicable
2-18 to facilities that are regulated under this Article or another
2-19 state or federal law. Except as provided herein, nothing <Nothing>
2-20 in this Article shall be construed to reduce, limit, or impair any
2-21 power heretofore vested by law in any incorporated city, town, or
2-22 village or the ability to adopt ordinances that establish
2-23 conditions for mapping, inventorying, installing, or relocating
2-24 pipelines over, under, along, or across public streets and alleys
2-25 or private residential areas within the boundaries of the city or
2-26 the ability to establish conditions for mapping or inventorying in
2-27 other areas within a city's extraterritorial jurisdiction.
3-1 SECTION 2. The importance of this legislation and the
3-2 crowded condition of the calendars in both houses create an
3-3 emergency and an imperative public necessity that the
3-4 constitutional rule requiring bills to be read on three several
3-5 days in each house be suspended, and this rule is hereby suspended,
3-6 and that this Act take effect and be in force from and after its
3-7 passage, and it is so enacted.