A federal appeals court appeared to consider sending pipeline regulators back to the drawing board to reconsider part of their sweeping safety standards for natural gas transmission pipelines.
During oral arguments Thursday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit questioned how to craft a narrow ruling that would address industry concerns about the expense of implementing a handful of new safety provisions put forward by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
The 2022 rule — which followed a deadly 2010 pipeline rupture in California — aimed to identify and fix corrosion and pipeline defects that could lead to pipeline failures.
Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, asked Thursday whether the court should fully toss out the portions of the rule challenged by the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America “if we do agree that the cost benefit analyses and the final analysis were inadequate.”
