Because Congress has not yet passed a fiscal year 2003 appropriations bill for the Department of Transportation (DOT), the agency’s Office of Pipeline Safety (OPS) said it will assess and collect safety user fees from natural gas and hazardous liquid pipelines based on fiscal year 2002 funding levels for now, and then later in 2003 will assess any increases in the fees that are authorized by lawmakers.

DOT currently is operating under a three-month stopgap funding measure that expires on Jan. 11, which permits it to collect about $14 million in user fees during the period. Congress returns on Jan. 7, at which time DOT spokeswoman Lisa Kokoszka said lawmakers either could pass another stopgap funding initiative for DOT or approve a budget for the department for fiscal year 2003. In the event of a second short-term budget resolution, she noted DOT would collect another round of user fee assessments for pipes totaling $14 million.

In the meantime, she said the OPS will issue its first user fee assessment to pipelines in December. Natural gas pipelines will be assessed $23.94 per mile (based on 299,358 miles of pipeline), and hazardous liquid lines will be assessed $44.51 per mile (based on 161,007 miles of pipeline), according to the department. Liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities normally are assessed a flat rate of $400,000 a year, but “these fees will not be collected at this time,” DOT said. “They will be issued and collected later.”

Additional user fee assessments “will be issued [in 2003] based upon appropriation by Congress as needed to replenish” the OPS Pipeline Safety Fund, which provides annual funding for DOT’s pipeline safety activities, including the daily operations and program activities of OPS, the department noted. It further said it “will strive to limit the number of assessments and collection of user fees” from pipes and LNG facilities in 2003.

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