On behalf of Wild Virginia, I respectfully ask the committee to approve HB 1073. The safety of gas pipelines is of utmost importance to nearby residents and others in the communities but also to emergency personnel who may need to respond to sites due to leaks and/or explosions. This is a common sense measure and an important step in the right direction. Thank you.

I urge the committee to support Delegate Rasoul's HB1073 to strengthen gas pipeline safety standards in Virginia. This is a common sense measure that anyone should be able to support, regardless of political affiliation. Thousands of miles of gas pipelines stretch across the Commonwealth. Much of that infrastructure is aging, and much of it is being incrementally modified, updated, or added to. At least one more recently constructed project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which has 100 miles of high pressure transmission right of way in Virginia, gives us serious concern with being structurally compromised, shoddily built, and essentially shielded from the vigorous federal oversight that should have forbidden it to have been built in the first place. Only through an act of Congress was the project finished. I cite the ruinous MVP because it's a prime example of what's occurring on a federal level; essentially a wholesale destruction of meaningful environmental laws and regulations, making way for otherwise illegal projects to be built. The Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, and the National Environmental Policy Act – bedrock protections for everyone in this country – stand to be obliterated in the next few years if current trends continue. States must therefore do everything possible to access every available lever – as well as create new ones – to see that the shortcomings of federal safety regulations and enforcement do not mean that Virginians are less safe. As someone who's worked with frontline communities fighting MVP for going on ten years, I've witnessed the absence of PHMSA and FERC, lead federal agencies on pipe safety and interstate gas pipeline permits, respectively. These agencies, like many state regulatory bodies, permit projects that they themselves cannot effectively monitor or keep within existing laws – and apparently have no intention to. Stronger regulations and stronger enforcement are needed on the state level, need to be more thoroughly funded and embedded into the Commonwealth's priorities to account for these shortcomings, and to ensure that the highest possible standards are keeping people safe. The gas industry frequently rolls out a narrative that leaks and explosions do not happen. Or if they do happen, they're rare. Or even if they're not that rare, they don't matter. Or whatever people need to hear to forget about it. They are wrong. Gas pipeline leaks and explosions occur in the United States every single year. As recently as July 25, 2023, Virginia has seen this happen when a TC Energy / Columbia Gas pipeline exploded outside of Strasburg, directly next to Interstate 81. Passersby felt the heat and pressure of a massive fireball exploding out of the ground, shooting a hundred feet into the air. It was a miracle that no one was killed or injured. Had that explosion occurred a quarter mile away in either direction on the pipeline right of way, I doubt we would have had such a lucky outcome. That portion of pipeline, to my understanding, had recently been placed back into service after modifications to both the line and the nearby Strasburg Compressor Station. It's up to the Commonealth to properly answer to the public's safety needs. This bill makes significant steps in that direction. I appreciate Delegate Rasoul's leadership on this issue and others regarding the public good concerning energy and safety, and encourage others to follow.

As someone who lives and works in proximity to a large methane transmission pipeline, I support HB 1073 and thank Delegate Rasoul for sponsoring this common sense safety measure. The State Corporation Commission should implement recommendations from the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s most recent leak detection and repair rule in the interest of public safety and in response to an overwhelming amount of methane gas transportation buildout happening in Virginia. Leak detection would also protect workers and emergency responders.

SUPPORT House Bill 1073 ensuring pipelines meet current leak detection and repair standards that match federal protections is important to align Virginia's regulations with the latest PHMSA rule and also to provide communities an warning system of potential equipment failure.

I wholeheartedly support HB 1073 directing the State Corporation Commission to develop rules for methane gas pipeline leaks and repairs. It is a commonsense community public safety issue: ○ Methane leaks can lead to pipeline rupture or explosion, endangering nearby communities and first responders. ○ Current minimum regulations do not set standards on the sensitivity, reliability or accuracy of leak detection equipment. It is protective of the environment and human health: ○ The bill would minimize intentional methane emissions protecting public health and reducing climate pollution. It is consistent with safety standards and improvements within the pipeline industry: ○ PHMSA incorporated consensus recommendations made by the pipeline industry, public, and a government Advisory Committee. ○ It establishes annual leak detection surveys that can help identify problems before they become dangerous, reducing costs for the pipeline operator. Thank you! Virginia communities and natural resources appreciate this important effort.

Please support of HB 1073, a commonsense pipeline safety bill that would implement the leak detection and repair recommendations of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Administration. There have been significant improvements within the industry for leak detection and repair, and PHMSA's years-long process to develop a rule with the public, government officials and the industry resulted in a comprehensive set of recommendations that would benefit human health and the environment, while reducing leaks, and subsequently, costs for pipeline operators. As the rule was not allowed to be published by the current federal administration, and additional rollbacks of enforcement are occurring at PHMSA, it is timely and important that the State Corporation Commission consider what safety review improvements they can make, for what is under their purview: intrastate pipelines. Please support HB 1073, which would direct the SCC to implement the January 2025 Leak Detection and Repair rule, to help increase leak surveys, minimize intentional emissions and improve reporting practices. Virginians deserve strong leak detection standards, for the safety of their communities.