This year, Congress is working to reauthorize the Pipeline Safety Act. This law establishes the national pipeline safety program within the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, and authorizes agency funding. The agency regulates pipeline safety by establishing requirements for pipeline design, construction, testing, inspection, operations, and maintenance. PHMSA enforces its regulations through periodic audits of pipeline operators, which are often conducted by state agencies.
PHMSA is also finalizing a sweeping set of new regulations that collectively represent the most significant update to natural gas transmission pipeline safety rules in almost 50 years. These updates will advance natural gas transmission pipeline safety by defining specific requirements to facilitate the use of modern pipeline safety technologies and engineering practices. The new rules enjoy broad support from public safety and environmental advocates, state and federal regulators, and the pipeline industry. Congress has pushed for these reforms in prior reauthorization bills. We at the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America are pleased to see that PHMSA plans to publish these new rules this Fall.
Pipeline safety has always been our top priority. We’ve been outspoken supporters of the need to bring decades-old regulations into the 21st century, and this reauthorization is the perfect opportunity to continue that work through two key priorities for updates to to the safety rules.
First, we hope Congress will update procedures for the regulatory changes that occur when the area around existing pipeline becomes more populated. The current, outdated rules around such “class location changes” hinder the deployment of modern technologies and engineering practices proven to enhance pipeline safety. Current rules require operators to focus instead on replacing pipe that is in good condition — a wasteful process that costs operators as much as $300 million annually to replace less than 75 miles of pipe. For context, $250 million could instead be invested into running state-of-the-art in-line inspection tools to inspect up to 25,000 miles of existing pipe, instead of just needlessly replacing 75 miles’ worth.
This also disrupts customers and landowners and, perhaps worst of all, causes enormous avoidable methane emissions — up to 800 million standard cubic feet of natural gas per year. This is equivalent to the annual natural gas use of over 10,000 homes, and the annual greenhouse gas emissions of over 80,000 passenger vehicles. So an update to these regulations would substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Second, we want Congress to authorize adequate funds for PHMSA, so that it can hire the best engineers and deploy inspectors across the country. Equally as important, we want to ensure that pipeline safety rules are based upon comprehensive information sharing between PHMSA and the public, first responders, industry experts and all relevant stakeholders.
The United States has been the world’s largest natural gas producer since 2012. To maintain our global energy leadership, we need safe and efficient pipelines supported by sensible, modern-day regulations.
Day in and day out, pipeline operators work to protect and enhance the safety of our nation’s critical infrastructure, as well as the public and environment surrounding those systems, reliably transporting and delivering natural gas across the country. We look forward to seeing natural gas transmission pipeline safety regulations brought into the 21st century to promote the utilization of modern technologies and practices.
Don Santa is president and CEO of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, an industry trade association that represents the operators of nearly 200,000 miles of natural gas pipeline.
