Pipeline Operators Say High-Tech Tools Preclude Need for Expansive Safety Regulation

Industry representatives tell Congress reauthorized pipeline safety bill should be swiftly adopted ‘without major changes or new mandates.’

Pipeline used to carry crude oil lays at the Superior terminal of Enbridge Energy in Superior, Wis., on June 29, 2018. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz says his administration will continue to appeal a regulatory commission's approval of Enbridge Energy's plan to replace its aging Line 3 crude oil pipeline. The commission approved the project last summer, but former Gov. Mark Dayton's Department of Commerce appealed that decision, as did several environmental and tribal groups. An appeals court decision last week sent the challenges back to the commission for further proceedings. AP Photo/Jim Mone, File

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.”

Liquid Energy Pipeline Association President/CEO Andrew Black, noting the natural gas utility industry invests $33 billion annually on pipeline safety, testified that “declining pipeline incidents over the last five years support a measured approach to reauthorizing pipeline safety laws without major changes or new mandates.”

Pipes destined for the Keystone XL pipeline are stacked in Gascoyne, North Dakota, April 22, 2015. The Canadian Press/Alex Panetta

Less Money, More Pipes

Democrats disagreed, especially since the Trump administration’s energy policies will pressure an overburdened agency seeing its 600-employee workforce cut by as much as a third and its budget slashed by $30 million from its fiscal year 2025 allocations.

“Republicans are proposing to cut an already under-resourced agency, all while they’re actively passing legislation and pushing for more pipelines,” Rep. Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) said. “So less staff, less funding, and more work to do.”

PHMSA’s $368.6 million fiscal year 2026 budget request includes $200 million from 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, the last of the bill’s five-year $1 billion Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization Grant Program. It represents a $31.4 million cut from FY25’s $400 million allocation.

“It’s been 661 days since the last pipeline safety reauthorization expired. So I’m glad we’re here today because there’s a lot to talk about,” Rep. Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said, accusing Republicans of pretending that technology can supplant safety oversight.

“Pipeline safety risks are just as prevalent as ever but since President Trump took office, enforcement action against pipeline operators by PHSMA have fallen off a cliff,” he said. “It’s not because pipelines have somehow magically gotten safer.”

Rep. Cathy Castor (R-Fla.) said PHMSA has brought “just five cases in the first three months of this year” compared to 66 cases during the same time period in 2017.

“And get this,” she added, “more than half the agency’s senior leadership has left.”

DOGE cuts eliminated more than 130 provisional PHMSA workers. Acting administrator Ben Kochman, executive director Howard McMillan, Office of Hazardous Materials Safety associate administrator William Schoonover, Office for Pipeline Safety director Alan Mayberry, and administration attorney Vasiliki Tsaganos are among the PHMSA leaders who have resigned since March.

Pipeline Safety Trust executive director Bill Caram said in his testimony that since the subcommittee held its last pipeline safety hearing in January 2024, 18 people have been killed and 45 people injured, and 881 incidents that prompted an emergency response have been reported.

“That means there has been a significant incident nearly every day, and nearly four people killed or seriously injured every month, since this subcommittee’s last hearing,” he said, noting such safety-related “pipeline incidents” have cost operators more than $6 billion since 2016.

Among ways Congress can improve pipeline safety is to fully fund PHMSA, Caram said, noting that the stymied 2023 PIPES Act increased its budget by 10 percent. He also suggested putting more money into the 80 percent funding program for state safety initiatives as requested by the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

He called on Congress to require pipelines have rupture mitigation valves to authorize studies on carbon dioxide and hydrogen pipeline safety, and mandate in-home methane detectors, fire-shutoff valves, pipeline safety management systems, and “financially meaningful enforcement.”

Workers lay the pipes of a gas pipeline outside the town of Waynesburg, Pa., in April 2012. MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images

What Operators Want

Washington-based LEPA, which represents 50 companies that deliver more than 20 billion barrels of crude oil, refined products, natural gas liquids, and carbon dioxide annually across a 230,000-mile network, wants a PIPES Act that will “encourage PHMSA to leverage technology for pipeline safety,” Black said.

“Congress can do more to help modernize pipeline safety programs,” he said. “Key parts of PHMSA safety regulations are over 20 years old and do not reflect the latest advances in safety technology or know-how, high-tech inspection, and analytical tools, like an MRI or ultrasound in the doctor’s office, are available for pipeline safety.”

“Unfortunately,” Latta said, “under the previous administration, PHMSA strayed from this core responsibility, focusing more on environmental agendas than safety,” which required NEPA reviews for demonstration projects.

Black said that pipeline operators want Congress to “strengthen penalties for pipeline safety violations that impair operation of facilities or damage construction sites; meet the 2020 Congressional mandate for a safety program for idled pipelines; authorize risk-based inspections of in-service breakout tanks to reduce unnecessary greenhouse gas and air pollutant emissions, worker safety threats, and hazardous waste when shown to achieve an equivalent level of safety.

GPA Midstream Association’s Miller testified that the 50 pipeline operators in her organization, which employ 57,000 at 365 natural gas processing plants, have three priorities for the reauthorized PIPES Act.

“First, we urge elimination of duplicative oversight” between federal agencies and state governments. Second, associations such as hers should have seats on PHMSA’s Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee, which “plays a vital role in shaping pipeline safety rules,” Miller said.

“Third, we encourage the use of more performance-based measures, and less prescriptive regulations, to achieve safety goals.”

Chesapeake Utilities Corporation executive vice president Jim Moriarty in his testimony called for federal preemption over state laws to ensure a common playing and regulatory field.

“Across the country, varying local mandates on fuel sources and appliance standards have created a complex regulatory landscape,” he said. “This patchwork of rules complicates planning, creates delays and increases costs, which ultimately affects customers and communities relying on natural gas.”

Moriarty repeated calls to strengthen criminal penalties for vandalizing pipelines.

“Natural gas utilities across the nation are experiencing an increase in criminal attacks on their property, equipment, and facilities,” he said. “These activities range from gunshots targeting pipelines to improvised explosive devices placed on natural gas delivery equipment, and the damaging of facilities and equipment necessary for safe natural gas delivery.”

Moriarty said PIPES Act’s three-year reauthorization timeline is too short, calling for a five-year plan for PHMSA’s Pipeline Safety Program to align with other reauthorizations such as the Farm Bill and Surface Transportation Bill.

“This interval is inadequate given the significant time it takes to conduct studies, publish reports, move reauthorization priorities from legislation to proposed rule-making, address comments, and develop feasible, reasonable, cost-effective, and practical rule-making,” he said.