Ingaa

After tweaking a controversial section on emergency orders, the House Energy and Commerce (E&C) Committee unanimously approved a pipeline safety bill to reauthorize the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act for five years, beginning in fiscal year (FY) 2017.

Several officials with the oil and gas industry told the House Energy and Power Subcommittee on Tuesday that a proposal to reauthorize the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act should not include language giving private individuals the right to sue the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday issued a draft U.S. Inventory of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions, highlighting that methane emissions are higher than in 2013 but have fallen in natural gas transmission, distribution and storage systems.

In separate filings Tuesday, the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) joined Spectra Energy Partners LP in asking FERC to extend the comment period for changes to its Guidance Manual for Environmental Report Preparation.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) said the potential costs of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) plan to limit methane emitted by the oil and gas industry would outweigh the benefits.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) and the INGAA Foundation have launched a campaign to get the word out about the necessity and virtues of the nation’s gas pipeline network. The effort comes at a time when shale gas-focused pipeline development has attracted increasing scrutiny from the public and politicians.

An industry-backed study of methane emissions from natural gas pipeline and storage infrastructure has found that the majority of measured emissions came from only a handful of the sites studied. This suggests that such emissions generally result from faulty equipment and are not endemic to natural gas infrastructure.

Revamping natural gas markets without building new infrastructure isn’t likely to provide the access to gas that power generators are looking for, according to incoming Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) chairman Ron Tanski, who is also CEO of National Fuel Gas.

Citing the U.S. natural gas transmission industry’s work over the last 30 years in greatly reducing the number of pipeline leaks as a result of pipeline safety efforts, maintenance programs and modernization and expansion projects to ensure system reliability and resiliency, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America’s (INGAA) board of directors vowed Tuesday to build on the industry’s success by developing guidelines that enhance efforts to discover and repair leaks from pipelines and associated equipment.