TSA’s Revised Security Guidelines for Pipelines

The Roberts Law Group is reporting on their Chemical Security blog that the TSA has released the revised Pipeline Security Guidelines. Their blog posting does not include a link to the document and I have not been able to find it on the TSA web site. I contacted Steve Roberts and he has not seen the document online either. This is not surprising as the TSA web site, other than their information for air security, is about worthless.

This is the document that I briefly mentioned in my blog last month about the OMB approval of the pipeline security reporting ICR. That security reporting program and these security guidelines are part of the TSA’s voluntary security program for natural gas and hazardous materials pipelines, a program that replaces the voluntary DOT security program.

I would like to be able to take TSA to task for their failure to actively regulate the security at these vulnerable facilities. Last year’s San Bruno accidental pipeline explosion shows the types of results we could expect to see from a successful terrorist attack on these types of facilities. However, TSA is not to blame for the lack of pipeline security regulations. Congress has not given that agency either the specific authority or the resources necessary to develop such regulations, much less enforce them.