DOT's LaHood says PHMSA will stop letting energy pipeline industry fund safety studies

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, whose department oversees the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), has promised to repeal the outside funding requirement of land-based pipeline safety studies after a reporter briefed his spokeswoman on the findings of an investigation by Hearst Newspapers.

"Secretary LaHood believes that credible, independent research is a crucial component of the Department of Transportation's safety agenda, and he has directed the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration to end the practice of using industry resources to help finance research," spokeswoman Olivia Alair said.

According to the Hearst story, U.S. gas pipeline operators and their trade organizations shaped, managed and provided sizable funding for numerous safety studies conducted by the federal agency that regulates the industry.

The Hearst investigation revealed that two-thirds of the 174 safety studies of land-based pipelines that the federal agency has launched in the last decade were largely funded by pipeline operators or organizations they control. That's because the agency has required that in most cases, at least half the funding for its pipeline safety research come from outside sources - a policy that the Obama administration is now promising to change.

PHMSA announces $1 million in new grants available to communities

The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has announced the availability of $1,000,000 for Technical Assistance Grants to Communities.
The money is in a new program in which the grants are to "allow communities and groups of individuals to obtain funding for technical assistance in the form of engineering or other scientific analysis of pipeline safety issues and help promote public participation in official proceedings. For purposes of grants eligibility, communities are defined as cities, towns, villages, counties, parishes, townships, and similar governmental subdivisions, or consortiums of such subdivisions.
A nongovernmental group of individuals is eligible for a grant under the TAG program if its members are affected or potentially affected individuals who are, or are willing to become, incorporated as a non-profit organization in the state where they are located."
The closing date for applications is May 28, 2009.