OMB Approves PHMSA Pipeline Repair Criteria ANPRM

Last week the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking from DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA). The ANPRM was submitted to OIRA on May 2^nd 2025. This ANPRM could be published in the Federal Register this week.

According to the Fall 2024 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“PHMSA plans a notice of proposed rulemaking that would modify the thresholds at which operators would be required to repair hazardous liquid pipelines, commonly referred to as anomaly repair criteria,” on pipelines located in high-consequence areas (HCA) and could-affect HCAs,” and develop new repair criteria for hazardous liquid pipelines in non-HCAs.  PHMSA is also examining changes to the repair criteria for gas transmission pipelines, including the anomaly thresholds for cracks, dents, and certain seam types.”

That entry also lists the first action for this rulemaking as an “NPRM”, notice of proposed rulemaking. Thursday’s notice from OIRA lists the approved action as “Pre-rule” which would be an ANPRM. I suspect that this is part of the Administration’s focus on making the regulatory process more responsive to business by involving them earlier in the process in developing regulations. A similar disconnect was seen in the submission notice.