This post was cowritten with Celerah Hewes, Moms’ National Field Manager.
A rule proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has the potential to cut pollution from pipelines across the U.S. by modernization and improved oversight. This is very good news—once the rule gets finalized. So far, it has been significantly delayed.
Last month, Moms Clean Air Force joined other community, environmental, and health groups to deliver over 80,000 petition signatures urging PHMSA to finalize this rule as quickly as possible. Our message: our families’ health and future is at stake.
A little background: There are about 3 million miles of gas pipelines around the country crossing every state. Methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is a main component of fracked gas. Methane emissions leaking from these pipelines contribute substantially to climate change.
“The gas pipelines within the U.S. are major sources of methane pollution, which is fueling the climate crisis and putting the health and safety of our families at risk,” says Moms Clean Air Force National Field Director Patrice Tomcik.
“With the expansion of fracked gas operations over the past 15 years, the volume of gas extracted and transported through the vast network of pipelines across the country has significantly increased,” she adds, including in her own community in Southwest Pennsylvania.
Increased extraction and transportation of fracked gas means increased methane leaks. The proposed rule would cover these emissions from pipelines, methane gas underground storage facilities, and liquid natural gas (LNG) facilities. The bipartisan PIPES Act of 2020 directed PHMSA to finalize standards by December 2021, but thanks to complicated governmental red tape, the rules have still not been finalized.
The proposed rule would also require pipeline operators to use widely available advanced technologies that can find and fix more leaks faster than current survey methods in the three main categories of gas pipelines in the U.S. (gathering, transmission, and distribution), as well as at facilities across the country.
If you’re not up on gas pipeline differences, here’s a primer:
- Gathering lines carry unprocessed gas from well sites to processing facilities.
- Transmission lines are like gas “highways,” transporting processed gas around the country to demand regions.
- Distribution lines are operated by local utilities to deliver gas to customers.
“This proposal is long overdue and is urgently needed to protect communities that are disproportionately impacted by pipeline infrastructure,” Tomcik says. Leaks on distribution pipelines, for example, tend to be located at higher densities in neighborhoods with more people of color and lower household income.
“I have asthma, and we’re watching our four-year-old daughter because the pediatrician heard wheezing in her lungs,” says Moms’ Ohio River Valley organizer Rachel Meyer, who lives in a town with dozens of gathering and transmission pipelines northwest of Pittsburgh. “Once finalized, these standards would improve pipeline oversight and help protect families like mine by reducing climate-destabilizing methane emissions and other types of harmful air pollution.”
WATCH: Rachel Meyer from Moms Clean Air Force shares why this rule is important to her community.