The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has advocated for the use of natural gas pipeline operator reports and other information in helping FERC identify, assess and respond to risks to reliability.

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GAO was tapped by Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI), who is a ranking member of the Subcommittee on Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) to review federal oversight of service interruptions involving interstate natural gas transmission pipelines. In January 2019, a weeklong outage affected 7,000 homes and businesses in Rhode Island. At the time, utility National Grid plc said it cut gas service to customers on Aquidneck Island “out of an abundance of caution” after “experiencing a low gas pressure situation” with supplier Algonquin Gas...