Title: LINES Act
Policy area: Environmental Protection

Summary:
Liability Insurance in Event of Spill Act or the LINES Act
This bill amends the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to cap the liability of parties that are responsible for oil discharges from a Great Lakes pipeline (any pipeline that crosses the navigable waters of the Great Lakes system) to the total of all removal costs plus $75 million.
A responsible party with respect to a Great Lakes pipeline must establish and maintain evidence of financial responsibility (e.g., evidence of insurance or a bond) in a certain amount.
Under current law, the Department of Transportation (DOT) may issue an emergency order to impose restrictions, prohibitions, and safety measures on owners and operators of gas or hazardous liquid pipeline facilities without prior notice or an opportunity for a hearing if they are necessary to abate an imminent hazard. This bill eliminates DOT's emergency order authority with respect to gas pipeline facilities.
The bill expands DOT's emergency order authority with respect to hazardous liquid pipeline facilities, including by allowing DOT to impose restrictions, prohibitions, and safety measures if it: (1) discovers reliable evidence that the pipeline is violating conditions required for its operation that were previously agreed upon between the responsible party and a state, tribal, or local government; or (2) determines, after consultation with the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard, that inadequate resources are available to respond to and clean up an oil spill during seasonal conditions or conditions expected or caused by an extreme weather event, or the responsible party cannot demonstrate that it has sufficient financial resources to satisfy the liability limits in the event of an oil spill incident.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1226 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






115th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1226

   To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to equalize liability and 
 financial assurance requirements for onshore pipeline facilities that 
could discharge oil into the Great Lakes system with such requirements 
for offshore pipelines, to authorize the Secretary of Transportation to 
   issue an emergency order directing pipeline owners to comply with 
existing pipeline operating agreements or acquire sufficient resources 
to appropriately respond to possible oil spill incidents, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                              May 24, 2017

  Mr. Peters (for himself and Ms. Stabenow) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment 
                            and Public Works

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
   To amend the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 to equalize liability and 
 financial assurance requirements for onshore pipeline facilities that 
could discharge oil into the Great Lakes system with such requirements 
for offshore pipelines, to authorize the Secretary of Transportation to 
   issue an emergency order directing pipeline owners to comply with 
existing pipeline operating agreements or acquire sufficient resources 
to appropriately respond to possible oil spill incidents, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Liability Insurance in Event of 
Spill Act'' or the ``LINES Act''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    Section 1001 of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2701) is 
amended--
            (1) by redesignating paragraphs (9), (10), (11), (12) 
        through (15), (16) through (24), (25), (26), (27), (28), (29), 
        (30), (31), (32), (33), (34) through (37), (38), (39), (40), 
        (41), (42), (43), and (44) as paragraphs (10), (13), (14), (17) 
        through (20), (22) through (30), (32), (33), (36), (35), (37), 
        (39), (38), (40), (41), (43) through (46), (34), (9), (11), 
        (12), (21), (31), and (42), respectively; and
            (2) by inserting after paragraph (14) (as redesignated) the 
        following:
            ``(15) Great lakes pipeline.--The term `Great Lakes 
        pipeline' means any pipeline that crosses the navigable waters 
        of the Great Lakes system.
            ``(16) Great lakes system.--The term `Great Lakes system' 
        means--
                    ``(A) Lake Ontario, Lake Erie, Lake Huron 
                (including Lake St. Clair), Lake Michigan, and Lake 
                Superior, and the connecting channels (Saint Mary's 
                River, Saint Clair River, Detroit River, Niagara River, 
                and Saint Lawrence River to the Canadian border); and
                    ``(B) any tributary of a lake or connecting channel 
                described in subparagraph (A).''.

SEC. 3. LIABILITY FOR GREAT LAKES PIPELINES.

    Section 1004(a) of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 
2704(a)) is amended--
            (1) in paragraph (3), by striking ``and'' at the end;
            (2) in paragraph (4), by striking the period at the end and 
        inserting ``; and''; and
            (3) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(5) for a Great Lakes pipeline, the total of all removal 
        costs plus $75,000,000.''.

SEC. 4. FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENT FOR GREAT LAKES PIPELINES.

    Section 1016(c) of the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 
2716(c)) is amended--
            (1) in the subsection heading, by inserting ``and Great 
        Lakes Pipelines'' after ``Facilities''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) Great lakes pipelines.--A responsible party with 
        respect to a Great Lakes pipeline shall establish and maintain 
        evidence of financial responsibility in the same manner as 
        described in paragraph (1).''.

SEC. 5. EMERGENCY ORDER AUTHORITY.

    Section 60117(o) of title 49, United States Code, is amended--
            (1) by amending paragraph (1) to read as follows:
            ``(1) In general.--The Secretary may issue an emergency 
        order described in paragraph (3) to impose emergency 
        restrictions, prohibitions, and safety measures on owners and 
        operators of hazardous liquid pipeline facilities, without 
        prior notice or an opportunity for a hearing, to the extent 
        necessary to abate an imminent hazard described in subparagraph 
        (A), comply with the conditions referred to in subparagraph 
        (B), or acquire the necessary insurance or other resources 
        needed to respond to an oil spill referred to in subparagraph 
        (C) if the Secretary--
                    ``(A) determines that an unsafe condition or 
                practice, or a combination of unsafe conditions and 
                practices, constitutes or is causing an imminent 
                hazard;
                    ``(B) discovers reliable evidence that the pipeline 
                is violating conditions required for its operation that 
                were previously agreed upon between the responsible 
                party and a State, tribal, or local government; or
                    ``(C) after consultation with the Administrator of 
                the Environmental Protection Agency and the Commandant 
                of the Coast Guard, determines that--
                            ``(i) inadequate resources are available to 
                        respond to and clean up an oil spill during 
                        seasonal conditions or conditions expected or 
                        caused by an extreme weather event; or
                            ``(ii) the responsible party cannot 
                        demonstrate, through any of the methods 
                        described in section 1016(e) of the Oil 
                        Pollution Act of 1990 (33 U.S.C. 2716(e)) that 
                        it has sufficient financial resources to 
                        satisfy the liability limits described in 
                        section 1004 of such Act (33 U.S.C. 2704) in 
                        the event of an oil spill incident.''; and
            (2) in paragraph (3)--
                    (A) in subparagraph (A)--
                            (i) by inserting ``(i)'' before ``the 
                        violation''; and
                            (ii) by adding at the end the following:
                            ``(ii) evidence that the pipeline is 
                        violating required operating conditions; or
                            ``(iii) the reasons that responsible 
                        party's existing resources are inadequate to 
                        remedy either of the situations described in 
                        paragraph (1)(C);''; and
                    (B) in subparagraph (E)--
                            (i) by inserting ``(i)'' before ``how the 
                        order''; and
                            (ii) by striking ``and'' at the end and 
                        inserting the following:
                            ``(ii) what the responsible party shall be 
                        required to do to ensure that the pipeline 
                        complies with applicable operating conditions; 
                        or
                            ``(iii) the resources that the responsible 
                        party shall be required to acquire to remedy 
                        either of the situations described in paragraph 
                        (1)(C); and''.
                                 <all>