Aerial & Ground Tour of Yellowstone Pipeline Cleanup

 Congressman, Denny Rehberg, and Representative Bill Shuster (R-PA), Chairman of the Transportation Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines & Hazardous Material, will take a helicopter and ground tour of the area around the Yellowstone Pipeline spill, and meet with local government, environment, and energy industry officials on Saturday, August 20. Chairman Shuster’s subcommittee oversees the federal programs and policies related to the regulation and safety of the nation’s pipelines and earlier held a Congressional hearing on the Yellowstone Spill at Rehberg's request.

“I promised to keep monitoring the clean-up progress surrounding this spill, and to fully explore the incident so we can prevent future problems,” said Rehberg, who has already testified before two separate House Hearings on pipeline safety in the wake of the spill. “My friend Chairman Shuster is working on comprehensive legislation to modernize our pipeline safety regulations and accepted my invitation to see the Montana incident first hand. We're going to take a good look around, we're going to ask a lot of questions, and we'll take the knowledge gained back to Washington to ensure a common-sense approach to protecting our environment and creating energy jobs.”

Reps. Rehberg and Shuster, will be accompanied by Jimmie James, Vice President and North Operations Manager for ExxonMobil Pipeline Company, on the helicopter and ground tour. They will be joined on the ground by Steve Merritt, the EPA On-Scene Coordinator, and John Ostlund, Yellowstone County Commissioner.

Story from Tom Schultz, Press Secretary