US appeals court scraps natural gas pipeline safety standards

By Nate Raymond

(Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday tossed out several pipeline safety standards adopted by President Joe Biden’s administration following industry criticism about the massive costs on pipeline operators.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration failed to adequately explain why the revised standards’ benefits outweigh their costs.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America, a trade group, had largely supported the revisions, but sued last year to challenge five that PHMSA adopted over its objections.

Those highly technical standards, finalized in 2022, included new requirements for operators to carry out repairs to address pipeline walls thinning or corroding or developing cracks and dents.

The trade group welcomed the ruling. The agency did not respond to a request for comment.

U.S. Circuit Judge Florence Pan, writing for Friday’s three-judge panel, said the PHMSA’s analysis of the costs of the new standards were inadequate, inconsistent or missing.

“Because the agency imposed a new safety requirement without properly addressing the costs of doing so, the standard cannot stand,” Pan, a Biden appointee, said of one of the new requirements.

The court upheld a fifth new standard the trade group had challenged, which addressed monitoring for a type of pipe anomaly that occurs when corrosion and high pressure cause cracks.