Review – HR 4818 Introduced – Pipeline Leak Detection

Last month Rep Peters (D,CA) introduced HR 4818, the Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair Act of 2025. The bill would provide an effective date for the “the final rule of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued under section 60102(q) of title 49, United States Code, on January 17, 2025, relating to “Pipeline Safety: Gas Pipeline Leak Detection and Repair” (Docket No. PHMSA–2021–0039; RIN 2137–AF51) [link added]”. No new funding is authorized.

The Rulemaking

On October 18^th, 2024, PHMSA sent a final rule to the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) for review. On January 17^th, 2025 (effectively the last day of the Biden Administration) OIRA announced that it had ‘concluded action’ on that final rule. Typically, this means that the rule should be sent to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) for printing. In this case, however, OIRA’s announced final action was characterized as “Statutory or Judicial Deadline”.

No Final Rule was published in the Federal Register. Of course, on January 20^th, 2025 (the next business day in Washington) the new President was inaugurated and almost immediately signed the expected executive memorandum freezing all ongoing rulemaking activities. Section 1 of that order would have prohibited DOT from sending this rulemaking to the OFR. Section 2 would have required any rule that had been sent to the OFR, but not published in the FR, to be withdrawn for review.

Moving Forward

While Peters is not a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for primary consideration, one of his five co-sponsors {Rep Huffman (D,CA)} is a member of the Committee. That means that there could be (theoretically) enough influence to see this bill considered in Committee. Unfortunately, the expected provisions of the regulation conflict with the Republican energy agenda which is a high priority in the 119^th Congress. That means that there is almost no chance of this bill seeing the light of day in a hearing room, much less on the floor of the House.

 

For more information on the background about the underlying rulemaking, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-4818-introduced-pipeline-leak   - subscription required.