The Trump administration discarded another element of former President Joe Biden’s climate agenda Monday, revoking the guidance document issued for the previous administration’s crackdown on natural gas leaks from pipelines.
Ben Kochman, acting administrator at the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, said Biden officials exceeded their authority and imposed “significant costs” on pipeline companies in 2021 when they issued guidance on how to follow a new law designed to reduce leaks.
“PHMSA’s failure to properly consider the principles of statutory construction produced a fundamentally flawed understanding” of the law, according to the notice Kochman sent to the Federal Register.
The rescission will be effective as soon as it gets published in the Federal Register.
