PHMSA Rescinds Section 114 Advisory Bulletin

Today the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced it has rescinded a Biden-era Advisory Bulletin issued in 2021 regarding Section 114 of the Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2020. Section 114 dealt with updating inspection and maintenance plans to eliminate hazardous leaks and minimize releases of natural gas from pipeline facilities. The Advisory Bulletin provided guidance to operators on interpreting this portion of the congressional act which was self-executing and was not codified into pipeline safety language contained in 49 Code of Federal Regulation (CFR) 192 or 195. However, language is incorporated into 49 United States Code (USC) Section 60108, Inspection and Maintenance. For context the USC contains specific language passed by congress and the CFR provides an interpretation of the USC by the relevant agency. The CFR often includes more information about how congressional language is to be implemented. In this case, the absence of CFR language meant operators used the Advisory Bulletin and publicly available inspection questions to drive program changes.

It remains to be seen what implications, if any, this will have for existing inspection questions as well as special Section 114 inspections that took place over the past couple years.

Contact Elemental Compliance for additional information, questions on the rescinded Advisory Bulletin, and to keep your pipeline safety programs up to speed with the changing regulatory landscape. Also consider signing up for our Regulatory Compliance Newsletter on our website where we provide real time updates on PHMSA and state pipeline safety activities at https://www.elementalcompliance.com/about.