Department of Transportation’s PHMSA Issues Advanced Leak Detection Rule to Strengthen Pipeline Safety and Protect Communities

(WASHINGTON ) Today, in accordance with the bipartisan PIPES Act of 2020, the Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has released its final Advanced Leak Detection and Repair Rule for gas pipelines and infrastructure, a critical step toward enhancing community safety and protecting public health.

"Gas pipeline leaks can cause explosions and fires, and the PHMSA rule will improve community safety across the country and reduce harmful pollution by requiring pipeline operators to find and fix more leaks. These commonsense pipeline safety standards are years in the making, developed through a bipartisan process that has seen strong engagement from the public and industry, including over 40,000 comments submitted on the proposed rule."

• Erin Murphy, Senior Attorney, Environmental Defense Fund

Background:

• The United States relies on a vast network of approximately 3 million miles of pipelines to transport natural gas, but leakage from this infrastructure poses safety risks and is a major source of methane emissions. Safety continues to be an urgent issue for gas infrastructure - 2023 was the deadliest year for pipeline incidents in a decade in the U.S., including incidents resulting from leaks.
• The bipartisan PIPES Act of 2020, signed into law by President Trump on December 27, 2020, directed PHMSA to set standards requiring the use of advanced leak detection technologies to find and fix more pipeline leaks, and to do so by the end of 2021.
• This rule is the result of years of public process and engagement as well as critical input from industry. In addition to approximately 35,000 comments submitted to the docket, PHMSA received approximately 8,000 comments. An initial public hearing, three rounds of written public comment opportunities as well as two Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee meetings (followed by an additional round of public comment each), have been dedicated to reviewing the rule and presenting recommendations to PHMSA. The Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee includes influential industry members.
• The rule will improve community safety and reduce climate pollution by requiring operators to conduct more frequent leak surveys using more effective technologies, to repair more leaks identified on their systems more quickly, and to expand the mileage of pipelines that must be leak surveyed. It also requires operators to minimize intentional natural gas releases such as equipment venting and blowdowns, reducing product loss and methane emissions.
• The rule applies to approximately 2.8 million miles of gas transmission, distribution and gathering pipelines, 398 underground natural gas storage facilities and 173 liquified natural gas facilities nationwide.
• Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a potent greenhouse gas, with warming potential more than 80 times that of carbon dioxide during the initial decades after its release.
• The rule is projected to generate up to $1.5 billion in annual net benefits while reducing up to 500,000 metric tons of methane emissions, which has the same climate benefit as removing 13 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles from the road for one year.