During the week of July 12, APGA staff had the opportunity to speak on two panels at Underground Construction Technology (UCT). The discussions were part of the Utilitech Conference, which is a new segment specific to gas utility contractors. APGA staff was glad to bring the perspective of public natural gas utilities to this important stakeholder group on two topics. The first topic was the future of the natural gas industry. APGA staff shared that there is a role for public natural gas utilities and the contractors they work with in America’s clean energy future. The infrastructure and operator workforces are already in place to transport clean, natural gas now and renewable natural gas (RNG) and hydrogen in the future. Contractors will be needed to maintain existing infrastructure and build new or possibly retrofit, as that may be required for moving new gaseous fuels such as hydrogen. In addition, APGA staff asked the contractor community to engage in advocacy efforts, supporting the public natural gas utilities in educating policymakers on the value of pipelines and the workforce that constructs, maintains, and operates them.
APGA staff also shared on Pipeline Safety Management Systems (PSMS), specifically on how contractors are a key element in operators appropriately implementing American Petroleum Institute (API) Recommended Practice (RP) 1173. There was a good discussion, and it seems contractors, recognizing the importance of a positive safety culture, are willing to work with public natural gas utilities in executing PSMS. The panel also discussed what was ahead, as revisions to API RP 1173 are being considered. As well, it is not a regulation now, but that is still a future possibility. Recent pipeline safety reauthorization did ask the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to write a report on the status of PSMS implementation. APGA looks forward to working with all stakeholders on all the associated PSMS efforts.
It is important to represent public natural gas utilities before stakeholders, such as contractors, and APGA staff will continue to do so, ensuring all understand APGA’s goals to preserve the environmental and economic benefits of natural gas to Americans.
For questions on this article, please contact Stuart Saulters of APGA staff by phone at 202-544-1334 or by email at
ssaulters@apga.org.