Biden Administration Proposes Safety updates for CO2 Pipelines Public Comment DEADLINE TBD

January 15, 2025

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by Mike Soraghan (Politico Pro Energywire) The long-awaited rules would require pipeline operators to prepare for potential leaks, after a 2020 rupture sent 45 people to the hospital. The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed new safety regulations for carbon dioxide pipelines, a key step in advancing a technology intended to cut planet-warming emissions.

Developers of carbon capture and storage projects welcomed the update, eager to blunt attacks from landowners and environmentalists that the pipelines carrying that carbon would be dangerously under-regulated. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has been working for nearly three years to close the gaps in current safety rules, which were written primarily for pipelines that transport CO2 for industrial uses, such as enhancing production from aging oil fields.

“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,” Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, whose department includes PHMSA, said in a statement.

Congress and the Biden administration have offered generous tax credits to encourage fossil fuel companies to pump CO2 underground rather than releasing it into the atmosphere. But, particularly in the Midwest, projects have faced opposition from safety advocates, farmers who don't want their property taken for pipelines and environmentalists who see carbon capture as a way to prolong the fossil fuel industry. READ MORE

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Excerpt from U.S. Department of Transportation: 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.

If adopted as-is, the rule would establish a set of new requirements, including:

Establishing for the first-time design, installation, operation, maintenance, and reporting requirements for carbon dioxide gas pipelines.
Establishing new requirements that pipeline operators must adhere to when converting existing pipelines to transport carbon dioxide in different phases.
Requiring all carbon dioxide pipeline operators to provide training to emergency responders and ensure carbon dioxide detection and other equipment is available for local first responders to use and efficiently respond during an emergency.
Implementing more robust requirements for communicating with the public during an emergency.
Requiring more detailed vapor dispersion analyses to better protect the public and the environment in the case of pipeline failure.

The Department of Energy has forecasted a significant expansion of the U.S. carbon dioxide pipeline network as part of a new global effort to capture and sequester excess heat-trapping carbon dioxide pollution. A December 2023 Congressional Budget Office report cited a nearly 10-fold increase in CCS projects under development. Estimates indicate that, by 2050, the mileage of carbon dioxide pipelines could expand by as much as 10 times the current number of more than 5,000 miles in operation.

Today’s announcement follows PHMSA’s 2022 efforts that imposed new requirements for CO2 pipelines to install remote or automatic shut off valves to improve pipeline safety during rare instances of pipeline failures. Since 2021, PHMSA has published six final or proposed major rules, including today’s CO2 proposal, underscoring the agency’s focus on executing a backlog of pipeline safety congressional mandates. PHMSA has regulated the safety of pipelines transporting carbon dioxide in a supercritical state for decades and has focused Federal research on improving the safety these pipelines.

The full text of the NPRM will be available in the Federal Register on publication. Those interested in commenting on the NPRM must do so within 60 days of publication in the Federal Register by submitting comments here. PHMSA has posted an unofficial version of the NPRM on its website pending publication in the Federal Register.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration develops and enforces regulations for the safe, reliable, and environmentally sound operation of the nation's 3.3-million-mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly 1.2 million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air. Please visit https://www.phmsa.dot.gov for more information. READ MORE