A federal appeals court has tossed out sweeping new safety standards for natural gas pipelines, finding that regulators failed to explain why the benefits of the new rules outweighed their costs.
In an opinion issued Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit said the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration must go back to work on most of its 2022 standards that aimed to identify and fix corrosion and other defects that can lead to pipeline failures. The rule came after a deadly 2010 pipeline rupture in California.
“When prescribing pipeline-safety standards, PHMSA must follow certain procedures that are mandated by statute,” Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, wrote for the unanimous court. “The procedures ‘are more specific and still more demanding’ than those required by the Administrative Procedure Act (‘APA’), which PHMSA also must follow.”
The APA, which governs most federal rulemaking, includes requirements for agencies to allow for public comment and to use reasoned decisionmaking when crafting regulations.
