Kinder Morgan is reportedly eyeing Tuscarawas County for a natural gas processing plant and a fractionation plant. The reports surfaced when EV Energy Partners referenced a “recent announcement” by Kinder Morgan on the two plants. Kinder Morgan has since denied that it made any such announcement. However, other reports revealed that Kinder Morgan was planning to build natural gas processing plants to handle up to 300 million cubic feet of natural gas per day. Industry estimates indicate that there has been $6 billion invested in pipelines in the Utica Shale play to date.
Industry officials announced at a conference in Columbus, Ohio, that a series of infrastructure investments over the next year will begin to unlock access to the Utica Shale play. Projects currently underway by Dominion Transmission Inc. and Enterprise Products Partners LP, will respectively raise the regions capacity to separate valuable ethane from shale gas streams and help to deliver ethane from the Utica and Marcellus shale deposits to petrochemical plants on the Gulf Coast. Marc Halbritter, managing director for commercial midstream operations for Dominion Transmission Inc., believes “these developments will break the bottleneck that has so far held back Utica Shale development,” allowing for growth and expansion of the play. Other major infrastructure additions are also under construction or planned.
On February 28, 2013, the West Virginia House of Delegates reportedly approved a measure that would significantly increase maximum civil penalties for safety violations involving natural gas pipelines regulated by the West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC). Under current law, the PSC may impose a civil penalty of $1,000 per day for a pipeline safety violation, up to a maximum of $200,000. The measure passed by the House of Delegates would raise those limits to $200,000 per day and up to a maximum of $2 million. The penalty increase would apply only to natural gas pipeline facilities that are under the jurisdiction of PSC, which oversees about 10 percent of the facilities in the state. The other 90 percent fall under state or federal jurisdiction. The legislation now moves to the West Virginia Senate.
On February 13, 2013, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in the Federal Register proposing to revise its annual report for gas distribution systems. According to the notice, PHMSA would like operators to specify the commodity transported in their distribution systems, to identify their operating status (i.e., as a municipal, privately-owned, or other system), to modify the category of causes for pipeline leaks, and to include additional categories of causes for excavation damage. PHMSA is seeking public comment on these proposals before sending the revised report to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval as required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.
On January 30, 2013, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published an advisory bulletin urging pipeline operators to report pipeline incidents to the National Response Center (NRC) within one hour of discovery. PHMSA also announced its intent to issue a proposed rule setting specific time limits for notifying the NRC. Current regulations require operators to notify the NRC at the earliest practicable moment following discovery. The Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011 requires PHMSA to issue a regulation imposing a more specific time limit.
Yesterday, the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation held a field hearing in Charleston, West Virginia, to discuss pipeline safety issues in the wake of the December 2012 gas pipeline incident in Sissonville, West Virginia. The Committee heard testimony from Ms. Sue Bonham, a resident of Sissonville; Ms. Deborah Hersman, Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board (the independent federal agency investigating the Sissonville incident); Ms. Cynthia Quarterman, Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Agency (the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety of gas and hazardous liquid pipelines); Ms. Sue Fleming, Director of Physical Infrastructure Issues for the U.S. Government Accountability Office (an independent agency that performs audits, investigations, and studies for the U.S. Congress); Mr. Jimmy Staton, a senior executive for NiSource Gas Transmission and Storage; and Rick Kessler, President of the Board of the Pipeline Safety Trust (a nonprofit group dedicated to pipeline safety). The witness’ written testimony and an archived webcast of the field hearing can be found on the Committee’s website.
In response to the natural gas pipeline explosion in Sissonville, West Virginia last month, WCHS Radio 58 and West Virginia Public Broadcasting report that U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller will hold a field hearing on January 28th in Charleston. The hearing, which will include regulatory officials, industry experts, and those affected by the explosion, will examine current laws and their implementation, as well as a recent report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on improving pipeline safety.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a press release today indicating that the agency posted record enforcement numbers in 2012. According to the press release, PHMSA issued 116 final orders for the year, the second highest total in its history, and proposed a record $8.7M in fines for pipeline safety violations. The press release also notes that PHMSA has proposed over $32M in civil penalties and issued 509 enforcement orders since 2008. The recent reauthorization of the federal pipeline safety laws doubled the maximum administrative civil penalties that can be assessed for violations to $200K per day, per violation, not to exceed $2M for any related series of violations.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report today concluding that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) needs to collect better data and provide additional guidance to improve the ability of pipeline operators to respond to incidents. GAO prepared its report to comply with a mandate in the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, the most recent reauthorization of the federal pipeline safety laws. A separate provision in that law requires PHMSA to determine if new safety standards should be established for the use of automatic and remotely controlled shutoff valves on transmission lines. The advantages and disadvantages of using automated valves is one of the issues examined in the GAO report.
NiSource Inc. has voluntarily reimbursed West Virginia state and local authorities for costs incurred by its December 11th pipeline explosion in Sissonville. Although there were no fatalities in the incident, which occurred just outside of Charleston, it damaged homes and part of Interstate 77. Most of the $231,000 given by NiSource will go to the Division of Highways. The incident remains under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board.
According to the revised reporting instructions available on its website, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has agreed to extend the deadline for gas transmission line operators to submit their 2012 annual reports from March 15, 2013 to June 15, 2013. This change is significant because PHMSA is collecting data in these reports on the pipeline segments in densely populated and other high consequence areas which lack sufficient records to confirm their established maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP). This effort is mandated by the MAOP verification requirements in the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, the most recent reauthorization of the nation’s pipeline safety laws.
The Charleston Daily Mail reports that U.S. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) will be holding a field hearing in Charleston, West Virginia, on pipeline safety. The date for the hearing entitled, “Pipeline Safety: An On-the-Ground Look at Safeguarding the Public,” is currently set for Monday, January 28th. It will focus on the recent gas pipeline accident in Sissonville, West Virginia, and the U.S. Department of Transportation’s implementation of the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, the most recent reauthorization of the nation’s pipeline safety laws. Senator Rockefeller is Chairman of the Senate Committee on Science, Commerce, and Transportation. Additional details can be found in his press release from earlier today.
Yesterday, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) released an update on its progress in implementing the requirements of the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act, the most recent reauthorization of the federal pipeline safety laws. President Obama signed that legislation one year ago, and PHMSA has since taken a number of actions to comply with its provisions, including initiating reforms to its administrative enforcement process, completing several congressionally-mandated studies, and issuing advisory bulletins on safety-related issues.
As explained in the December edition of the PIOGA Press, President Obama’s reelection has set the stage for a series of regulatory actions by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA). The most significant actions involve two rulemaking proceedings that could substantially overhaul the current federal safety standards for natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), the federal agency responsible for ensuring the safety of our nation’s gas pipelines, has given transmission line operators until March 15, 2013, to determine whether they have sufficient records to confirm the maximum allowable operating pressure (MAOP) for segments located in densely populated and other high consequence areas. PHMSA imposed that deadline to comply with a mandate in the Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011, Pub. L. No. 112-90, the most recent reauthorization of the federal pipeline safety laws. More information on PHMSA’s MAOP verification requirements is available in the latest edition of the PBA Environmental & Energy Law Section Newsletter.