Rand Paul Takes Brave, Lonely Pro-Explosion Stance On Gas Pipelines

Hm, let's see, what normal, boring, uncontroversial public safety measure can some branch of the Paul family tree make hilarious through his comical lone opposition to "people not being incinerated in fiery explosions all the time?" This time: the entire Senate, nay, the entire world, is trying to expedite the passage of an industry-supported bill to make some baseline improvements on federal safety regulations for gas pipelines that keep blowing up, but Rand "The Lesser" Paul just has to be the petulant pants-hating clown blocking All of Democracy to prove his standard-issue teatard point that a handful of human lives is a small price to pay for a couple dozen less federal regulators.

The San Francisco Chronicle reports:  

"Sen. Paul doesn't think new regulations and the creation of dozens of bureaucratic positions should be swept through without sufficient debate and vote," said his spokeswoman, Moira Bagley.

Paul has used his Senate privileges to put a hold on the Pipeline Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2011, which blocks further action on the bill despite nearly unanimous bipartisan support in Congress for toughening federal regulations.

Meanwhile, the horrifying details of the report on the pipeline explosion in California last year that killed eight people and prompted the call for new federal regulations:

The [National Transportation Safety Board] found that the San Bruno explosion on Sept. 9, 2010, was inevitable because a seam weld in the pipeline would have failed even a visual inspection when it was installed by PG&E in 1956. The board also found that PG&E failed for more than 50 years to conduct an inspection that would have detected it, compounded the danger by poor record keeping and finally botched a repair and failed to recognize what had happened until the neighborhood was in flames.

It gets said every once in a while, but it's probably time to think again about reforming Senate privilege rules, maybe, oh just maybe? [ San Francisco Chronicle ]