On March 8, the House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure’s Subcommittee on Railroads, Pipelines and Hazardous Materials held a hearing on Pipeline Safety: Reviewing Implementation of the PIPES Act of 2020 and Examining Future Safety Needs. Four individuals testified during the hearing: Tristan Brown, Deputy Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Andrew Black, President and CEO of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association, Kenneth Grubb, COO of Gas Pipelines at Kinder Morgan, Inc., and Bill Caram, Executive Director of the Pipeline Safety Trust.
In Deputy Administrator Brown’s written testimony, he highlighted the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety & Modernization Grant Program for publicly and community owned natural gas systems. He stated that “as of this hearing, we expect to announce the first round of these grants imminently.” Additionally, Representative Rick Larsen (D-WA 2nd District) also called out the grant program as “just the beginning” and supports “on-going grants.”
Much of the cross examination focused on two areas. First was the need for PHMSA to hire pipeline safety experts for compliance inspections and for rulemakings; and second was PHMSA’s recent statements about being a “climate change agency.” PHMSA defended their position and pointed to the mandates in the PIPES Act of 2020 that mandated PHMSA to promulgate regulations that “minimize methane emissions”.
There will be several more PHMSA hearings throughout 2023 as Congress looks to pass Pipeline Safety Reauthorization legislation this year. APGA will continue to engage in those hearings.
View the written testimony APGA provided for this hearing.
For questions on this article, please contact Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at ekurilla@apga.org.