Review – S 2660 Introduced – Pipeline Risk-Based Safety

Earlier this month, Sen Curtis (R,UT) introduced S 2660, the Modern Risk Detection Act of 2025. This bill would amend 49 USC 60102, which establishes the purpose and general authority for the DOT’s pipeline safety regulations. The legislation would require the adoption of risk based standards in the PSR to the maximum extent practicable. No new funding is authorized.

Moving Forward

Curtis is a Sub-Committee Chair in the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there should be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. I suspect that the Democrats will generally oppose this bill as ‘risk-based approaches’ are frequently seen by them as a means for the regulated community to avoid strict enforcement of regulations. Still there should be sufficient influence to see this bill reported favorably by the Committee. This bill is not, however, politically important enough to be considered under regular order in the Senate and it would not survive an attempt at passage under the unanimous consent process. The best way for this bill to move forward would be for it to be added to a larger piece of legislation that would be considered under regular order.

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, including an alternate method of achieving a risk-based approach to the Pipeline Safety Regulations, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/s-2660-introduced-pipeline-risk-based - subscription required.

PHMSA Publishes 60-day ICR Notice for 8 Pipeline Safety Collections – 10-10-24

Today the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a 60-day information collection request (ICR) renewal notice in the Federal Register (89 FR 82294-82296) for eight ICR’s supporting various aspects of the Pipeline Safety Regulations. No programmatic changes have been made nor has there been any changes made to the reported burden estimates. The eight ICRs are:

ICR Number	Title
2137-0627	National Registry of Pipeline and LNG Operators
2137-0600	Qualification of Pipeline Safety Training
2137-0605	Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Assessment Requirements
2137-0622	Public Awareness Program
2137-0584	Gas Pipeline Safety Program Performance Progress Report and Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Program Performance Progress Report
2137-0589	Response Plans for Onshore Oil Pipelines
2137-0610	Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas Gas Transmission Pipeline Operators
2137-0624	Control Room Management / Human Factors

PHMSA is soliciting public comments on these ICRs. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # PHMSA-2024-0137). Comments should be submitted by December 9^th, 2024.

Review - HR 7655 Introduced – Pipeline Safety

Back in March, Rep Duncan (R,SC) introduced HR 7655, the Pipeline Safety, Modernization, and Expansion Act of 2024. This bill provides for the reauthorization of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) Pipeline Safety Regulations (PSR). This bill is similar to HR 6494, the PIPES Act, which was introduced by Rep Graves (R,MO) and reported favorably by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Topics of potential interest here include:

§10. Strengthening penalties for pipeline safety violations.

§12. Maximum allowable operating pressure.

§14. Pipeline safety voluntary information-sharing system.

§18. Regulatory updates.

§19. Class location changes

Committee Action

On March 20^th, 2024, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a markup hearing that included consideration of this bill. The bill was amended (the current record does not show which amendments were approved) and then approved by a vote of 27 to 18 (which sounds like a party-line vote, but again no data is available).

Moving Forward

Typically, once a committee orders a bill reported, the publication of that report enables the bill to be considered by the full House. With split committee support like the 27 to 18 vote indicates, the bill would not be considered for consideration under the suspension of the rules process because such bills require a supermajority for passage. So, this bill would have to be considered under regular order. While ‘regular order’ in the House is less complicated than in the Senate, it still requires a level of political importance, that probably cannot be ascribed to this bill.

But this is not a typical situation. The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is the committee to which this bill was assigned for primary consideration. Until that Committee takes action on this bill, it will not proceed to the floor (okay, the Chair of the TI Committee could give permission for it to proceed without that Committee’s action, but that ain’t gonna happen, Chair prerogatives are too important).

Commentary

This bill was crafted by the Energy and Commerce Committee staff because the committee leadership was not satisfied with one or more provisions of the HR 6494, the PIPES Act, which was offered by the Chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. That bill was ordered reported back in December of 2023. Energy and Commerce was assigned secondary consideration on the PIPES Act bill, so that bill is also tied up waiting for EC’s consent to move that bill to the floor.

PHMSA Publishes Pipeline Safety Deregulation Final Rule

The DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final rule in Monday’s Federal Register (86 FR 2210-2242, available on-line today) on “Gas Pipeline Regulatory Reform”. The NPRM for this rulemaking was published in April 2020.

The following changes were made from the notice of proposed rulemaking language:

Farm Taps (Sections 191.11, 192.740, 192.1003) –

◦ Removed the proposed § 192.740(c)(4) from the final rule, and

◦ Replaced ‘unregulated gathering line’ with ‘gathering pipeline other than a regulated gathering line as determined in § 192.8 of this part” in §192.740(c)(3);

Master Meter Operators (Sections 192.1003, 192.1005, 192.1015) – no change;

Mechanical Fitting Failure Reporting (Sections 191.12, 192.1009) – revised the proposed part C of the Gas Distribution Annual Report form to clarify that operators should report the number of hazardous leaks “involving” a mechanical joint failure, rather than “caused” by a mechanical joint failure;

Monetary Threshold for Incident Reporting (Section 191.3, New Appendix A to Part 191) –

◦ Set new property damage threshold to $122,000, and

◦ Incorporated the inflation adjustment formula described in the preamble to the NPRM into a new appendix A to part 191;

External Corrosion Control: Monitoring (SECTION 192.465) – clarified that remote inspection is permitted by the pipeline safety regulations (PSR);

Atmospheric Corrosion: Monitoring (Sections 192.481, 192.491, 192.1007, 192.1015) – revises  §192.491(c) to clarify that an operator must retain records of the two most recent atmospheric corrosion inspections in order to use the 5-year inspection interval for facility distribution service line;

Plastic Pipe (Sections 192.7, 192.121, 192.281, 192.285, Appendix B to Part 192) – changes the minimum wall thickness required to use plastic pipe with a size of 1-inch CTS with a design factor of 0.40 rather than 0.32;

Test Requirements for Pressure Vessels (Section 192.153) –

◦ Clarifies in §192.153(e)(3) that inspections may occur prior to the pressure vessel tie-in on-site with the pipeline,

◦ Clarifies that any pressure vessel that is temporarily or permanently installed in a pipeline facility must be inspected for damage unless it has been pressure tested on its supports at its installation location, and

◦ Adding a new § 192.153(e)(6) that clarifies testing and inspection requirements for relocating an existing pressure vessel that has previously been used in service for permanent installation at a new location in a pipeline facility;

Welding Process Requirement (Section 192.229) – no change; and

Pre-Test Applicability (Section 192.507) - removed the term “hydrostatic” from the new § 192.507(d);

The effective date of this final rule is March 21^st, 2021.

This rulemaking was initiated by the Trump Administration as part of their move to ease the regulatory burden on industry. As such it may undergo review by the Biden Administration or the 117^th Congress. Biden could delay the effective date of this rule to allow for a detailed review.

PHMSA Publishes Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Final Rule

Yesterday the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final rule in the Federal Register (84 FR 52260-52298) on “Pipeline Safety: Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines”. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rule was published in October 2015. The effective date for this rule is July 1^st, 2020.

Summary

This rule amends the Pipeline Safety Regulations for the transport of hazardous liquids in pipelines. The rule:

• Extends reporting requirements to certain hazardous liquid gravity and rural gathering lines;

• Requires the inspection of pipelines in areas affected by extreme weather and natural disasters;

• Requires integrity assessments at least once every 10 years of onshore hazardous liquid pipeline segments located outside of high consequence areas and that are “piggable”;

• Extends the required use of leak detection systems beyond high consequence areas to all regulated, non-gathering hazardous liquid pipelines;

• Requires that all pipelines in or affecting high consequence areas be capable of accommodating in-line inspection tools within 20 years, unless the basic construction of a pipeline cannot be modified to permit that accommodation;

• Clarifies other regulations; and

• Incorporates Sections 14 and 25 of the PIPES Act of 2016 to improve regulatory certainty and compliance.

Changes from NPRM

The preamble to this rule discusses the comments submitted in response to the NPRM provides the following responses:

Reporting Requirements for Gravity Lines: PHMSA will require operators of gravity lines to report information annually, starting 1 year from the rule's effective date, and to report accidents and safety-related conditions starting 6 months from the rule's effective date. PHMSA will exempt  pipelines located within the confines of a facility or in close proximity (within 1 mile) to a facility and do not cross a waterway currently used for commercial navigation from these reporting requirements. PHMSA does not require mapping of gravity lines at this time. PHMSA does not require telephonic reporting of accidents involving gravity lines at this time but may reassess this requirement in a future rulemaking.

Reporting Requirements for Gathering Lines: PHMSA has modified its existing reporting form to provide clear instructions, including skip patterns, on the relevant sections that gathering line operators must fill out. PHMSA is not imposing a pipeline mapping submission requirement on operators of gathering lines. PHMSA is not requiring telephonic reporting of accidents involving gathering lines.

Pipelines Affected by Extreme Weather and Natural Disasters: PHMSA adopted most of the changes proposed by the Liquid Pipeline Advisory Committee (LPAC) in the final rule under §§ 195.414(a), (b), and (c). PHMSA clarified that the cessation of the event occurs as soon as it is safe for personnel and equipment to access the area. PHMSA notes that the proposal did not require completion of the inspections within 72 hours, and neither does the final rule.

Periodic Assessment of Pipelines Not Subject to IM: PHMSA is limiting the assessment requirement to onshore, non-HCA, non-gathering lines that can accommodate inline inspection tools. PHMSA has determined that inline inspection (ILI) tools may not be available for all pipe diameters and threats being assessed, and providing operators the ability to use these other assessment methods on piggable lines is appropriate at this time. PHMSA has revised the final rule, at both §195.416 and §195.452, to require crack tools only when there is an identified or probable risk or threat supporting their use. PHMSA has expanded the assessment provisions to require operators to use a tool or tools capable of assessing seam integrity, cracking, and of detecting corrosion and deformation anomalies on low-frequency ERW pipe, pipe with a seam factor less than 1.0, or lap-welded pipe susceptible to longitudinal seam failure. PHMSA has revised §195.416 to be consistent with the revised requirements under §195.452 regarding the discovery of condition. PHMSA is specifying that these requirements apply to onshore, piggable line pipe not covered under the IM requirements, including the relevant line pipe within pump stations, but not other appurtenances and components like metering stations, tanks, etc.

IM and Non-IM Repair Criteria: PHMSA has decided to separate the repair-criteria provisions from this final rule.

Leak Detection Requirements: PHMSA is not extending leak detection requirements to offshore gathering lines or regulated rural gathering lines at this time. PHMSA is pursuing leak detection system performance criteria, valve spacing requirements, and automatic shutdown capability in a separate rulemaking.

Increased Use of ILI Tools in HCAs: No changes were made.

Clarifying Other Requirements: PHMSA agrees with commenters who believe hydrostatic testing is an acceptable baseline assessment method for newly constructed pipelines and is incorporating that option into this final rule.

PIPES Act of 2016

Changes were made to this rulemaking based upon specific requirements imposed by Congress in §14 and §25 of the Pipes Act of 2016. Since DOT had no discretion in implementing these requirements, a notice a comment period was deemed not to be necessary.

Section 14 requires owners and operators of hazardous liquid pipeline facilities, following accidents involving pipeline facilities that result in hazardous liquid spills and within 6 hours of a telephonic or electronic notice of the accident to the National Response Center, to provide safety data sheets on any spilled hazardous liquid to the designated Federal On-Scene Coordinator and appropriate State and local emergency responders. This was addressed by changes to §195.65.

Section 25 requires operators of any underwater hazardous liquid pipeline facility located in an HCA that is not an offshore pipeline facility and any portion of which is located at depths greater than 150 feet under the surface of the water to ensure that pipeline integrity assessments using internal inspection technology appropriate for the pipeline's integrity threats are completed not less often than once every 12 months. This was addressed by including a new §195.454.