Yesterday, OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on “Pipeline Safety: Repair Criteria for Hazardous Liquid and Gas Transmission Pipelines”. The NPRM was submitted to OIRA on May 14th, 2026. An advanced notice of proposed rulemaking was published on May 21st, 2025.
According to the 2026 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.”
According to a PHMSA press release:
“Leveraging Modern, Proven Engineering Modeling: Prioritizes remediation based on how long pipes can safely remain in service and avoids costly, unnecessary grid outages.”
I expect that the NPRM will be published in the Federal Register in the next week or two.
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