WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) announced new comprehensive proposed requirements for carbon dioxide (CO2) and hazardous liquid pipelines.
The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) will strengthen existing standards for hazardous liquid and CO₂ pipelines (including CO2 that is transported in a supercritical fluid state), and for the first-time, establish new standards for transporting carbon dioxide in a gaseous state via pipeline. The proposal also specifically addresses lessons learned from PHMSA’s multi-year investigation into a CO2 pipeline failure in Satartia, Mississippi, in 2020 as well as input from the public in what has been PHMSA’s largest public outreach campaign on record.
“Through President Biden’s policies, America is leading the way in the race to safely capture, transport, and store carbon dioxide underground, with all of the associated economic and environmental benefits,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Today, as this technology grows rapidly across the country, we are proud to propose comprehensive new rules to ensure that carbon dioxide pipelines are safe.”
“I have learned first-hand from affected communities in Mississippi and across America why we need stronger CO2 pipeline safety standards,” said PHMSA Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown. “These new requirements will be the strongest, most comprehensive standards for carbon dioxide transportation in the world and will set our nation on a safer path as we continue to address climate challenges.”
This NPRM responds to a significant anticipated need corresponding with expansion of carbon capture and storage (CCS) infrastructure resulting from billions of dollars in new incentives in the President’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act.