Pipelines are the safest way to transport oil Image By Andrew Black Key Points Over 99.999% of petroleum products reach their destination safely; PHMSA data shows pipeline incidents per barrel delivered fell 33% in the past 5 years. Pipelines are many times safer than trains or trucks. Tools like high-tech inspections, AI-driven analytics, and remote sensing can detect leaks or needed maintenance earlier. LEPA urges Congress to modernize PHMSA’s 20-year-old safety regulations to leverage these advances. LEPA supports measured updates to pipeline safety law: modernizing PHMSA programs, increasing transparency, reforming special permits, enhancing penalties for pipeline attacks, and ensuring more STEM expertise in federal oversight. This is a lightly edited excerpt of testimony recently provided to the U.S. House of Representatives’ Energy and Commerce Energy Subcommittee during the hearing “Strengthening American Energy: A Review of Pipeline Safety Policy.” Pipelines deliver the energy products American families use every day. Liquid energy pipelines deliver transportation fuels like gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel that families, commuters, businesses and travelers use to drive and fly where they need to go. Pipelines deliver transportation fuel feedstocks like crude oil and industrial feedstocks like ethane, propane and butane to make everything from plastics to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, paints and fabrics. Rural home heating and agricultural fuels like propane delivered regionally by pipeline before traveling locally by truck heat rural homes and farms, dry crops after harvest, and keep livestock barns warm throughout the winter. Focusing on safety More than 99.999% of crude oil and petroleum products delivered by pipeline reaches its destination safely. A 2018 report prepared for Congress by PHMSA analyzing 10 years of incident data found pipelines were 13 times safer than both trains and trucks with pipelines experiencing 1 incident for every 720 million gallons delivered and rail incidents occurring every 50 million gallons delivered. An Obama administration analysis found rejecting a major pipeline and shipping the same crude oil by rail would increase the risk of oil release by over 800 times and barrels released by 2.6 times. Current PHMSA pipeline incident statistics also show pipeline safety is improving. Federal law and regulations require operators to report pipeline incident data to PHMSA. Full year data for 2024 is now available, which allows us to examine current trends in pipeline safety. According to publicly available PHMSA data, total liquids pipeline incidents are down 13% over the last 5 years. Liquids pipeline incidents Impacting People or the Environment (IPE) are also down 13% over the last 5 years. When comparing incidents to volume delivered, the decrease is even more striking, with liquids pipeline incidents per barrel delivered down 33% over the preceding 5 years. Or put another way, liquids pipeline incidents are decreasing at the same time America’s pipelines are delivering more and more energy. Leaning forward Declining pipeline incidents over the last 5 years support a measured approach to reauthorizing pipeline safety laws without major changes or new mandates. However, the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association (LEPA) does believe there is a role for Congress to: 1) encourage PHMSA to leverage technology for pipeline safety, 2) support American energy development through safe pipelines, and 3) improve the effectiveness and efficiency of PHMSA programs. Congress can do more to help modernize pipeline safety programs. Key parts of PHMSA safety regulations are over 20 years old and do not reflect the latest advances in safety technology or know-how. Hi-tech inspection and analytical tools, like an MRI or ultrasound in the doctor’s office, are available for pipeline safety. Analytic methods harnessing machine learning and other forms of artificial intelligence can help operators digest data to show when a pipeline might be leaking or when it needs new maintenance. The committee can adopt provisions to reauthorize a pipeline safety technology demonstration program and promote safety sharing through a voluntary information system. Harnessing American energy Congress can also support the contribution of pipelines to helping unleash American energy. Smart pipeline policies that will promote the pipeline energy infrastructure needed to deliver American energy dominance include reforming PHMSA’s special permit program with both a bar on extraneous conditions and a decision deadline, closing loopholes in penalties for pipeline attacks, and targeted updates to CO2 pipeline safety standards. Lastly, LEPA believes Congress can help PHMSA increase the effectiveness and transparency of its pipeline safety programs and requirements. This administration is off to a great start bringing long-needed reforms to PHMSA. In just a few short months, PHMSA has announced changes that will improve bring greater transparency to how it interprets regulatory requirements and enhance due process during PHMSA enforcement proceedings. This spring, PHMSA issued several Advance Notices of Proposed Rulemaking to gather stakeholder input on important reforms, such as modernizing pipeline repair criteria and reducing regulatory burden. PHMSA also recently announced regulatory actions to improve special permits, update incident reporting thresholds, and integrate remote sensing technologies for monitoring right-of-way patrols. LEPA believes Congress can make several of these reforms permanent through statute, increase transparency in the PHMSA inspection program and provide the agency additional pipeline safety regulatory personnel with STEM expertise and pipeline operations experience. Read the full testimony here. Andrew Black is the President and CEO of the Liquid Energy Pipeline Association. *The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of EnergyPlatform.News.
