Industry representatives tell Congress reauthorized pipeline safety bill should be swiftly adopted ‘without major changes or new mandates.’
The 3.3 million-mile network of interstate pipelines pumping natural gas, crude oil, gasoline, and other hazardous fuels across the United States has been operating on auto-pilot for nearly two years.
In 2023, Congress’ failed to reauthorize the Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2020 as required every three years, meaning for the last 20 months, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) pipeline safety program has been in limbo.
Industry and safety advocates agreed during a July 22 hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Energy Subcommittee that adopting an updated PIPES Act is, as Chair Rep. Bob Latta (R-Ohio) said, “imperative to public safety and the energy security of our nation.”
Pipeline operators called on Congress to adopt a PIPES Act that promotes technologies, such as artificial intelligence, in developing safety protocols rather than impose a matrix of new regulatory requirements.
“Our members are using AI today to be able to sort through large quantities of data to identify trends and solve operational challenges,” GPA Midstream Association President/CEO Sarah Miller said. “We believe AI can inform risk-assessment to help operators identify and manage first pipeline anomalies before they become leaks, and then also prioritize repairs in order to address those that pose the highest risk first.”
Industry leaders lobbied for a bill that addresses aging pipeline infrastructure; boosts cyber protections; increases penalties for vandalism; limits liabilities for unintended excavation damage; rids “extraneous requirements” demonstration project grant applications; trim regulations on 435,000 miles of “gathering” pipelines that carry fluids from source to distribution hub; and eliminate a leak-and-discovery program.
Many of these rules and regulations, imposed during the Biden administration, are unneeded, they argued, noting investments in technologies, including AI, means PHMSA can focus on engineering and practices without imposing new safety regulations.
Citing a 2018 PHMSA report, Latta said pipelines delivered 180 million gallons of energy “per safety incident,” noting in the last 20 years, “serious pipeline incidents have been reduced by approximately 34 percent.”
By John Haughey
