The US Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) would have to set minimum safety standards for CO2 pipelines under a bipartisan reauthorization bill set for committee debate on Wednesday.
The bill, named the PIPES Act of 2025, would provide PHMSA with guidance for its pipeline safety programs through fiscal year 2029 and authorize $804mn of spending over that period that would then be recovered from pipeline operators and natural gas storage facilities. The US Congress last tried to reauthorize those programs two years ago, but the bill failed to advance.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee is scheduled to mark up and vote on the bill — which has the support of the committee's chairman Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and ranking member Rick Larsen (D-Washington) — at a hearing on Wednesday. The US Senate has yet to release its own text of a PHMSA reauthorization bill.
The bill would pressure PHMSA to finish overdue pipeline safety rules that were mandated by Congress. It would require the agency to post status updates on congressionally required rules every 30 days. PHMSA would also face a 90-day deadline to finalize a "class location change" rule that has been delayed by more than a decade. That rule would require pipelines to meet tougher standards for segments where nearby population density has increased.
PHMSA would also have to issue a regulation to set minimum safety standards for CO2 pipelines. The agency proposed first-time regulations for CO2 pipelines in the final weeks of former president Joe Biden's term, but the 346-page document was never formally published, and President Donald Trump's administration has yet to take further action on the rule.
The 2020 rupture of a CO2 pipeline in Mississippi and recent issues at a CO2storage site in Illinois have fueled concerns about carbon storage projects, many of which are now eligible for the 45Q tax credit of $85/metric tonne. US representatives Sean Casten (D-Illinois) and Jared Huffman (D-California) last week urged federal regulators to halt further approval of new CO2 injection wells, following reports of subsurface CO2 leaks in 2024 from a storage site in Illinois they say was caused by corrosion of steel used in injection wells.
Hydrogen is another focus in the reauthorization bill. It would direct the US Government Accountability Office to release a report within 18 months that would scrutinize existing natural gas pipeline systems that have blended at least 5pc of hydrogen into their gas supply. Another study would focus on the use of composite materials in pipelines that are able to transport hydrogen.
