Plant Safety Authorities Coordination Act of 2025
This bill, titled the Plant Safety Authorities Coordination Act of 2025, would amend the federal definition of “transporting gas” in the U.S. Code. Specifically, it narrows what counts as transporting gas by carving out certain movements of gas that occur within a plant or very close to a plant and by excluding some rural gas gathering movements from federal classification as transporting gas. The effect is to reduce federal pipeline-safety regulatory coverage for these in-plant or near-plant gas movements, while clarifying exclusions related to how gas is gathered in rural areas. The bill is introduced in the Senate and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation; sponsor is Senator Sheehy. It does not, by itself, establish new safety rules but changes when federal pipeline safety laws apply to specific plant-related gas movements.
Key Points
- 1The bill amends Section 60101(a)(21) of title 49 to redefine “transporting gas,” introducing a formal exclusion for certain activities.
- 2Exclusion (i): Gathering gas in a rural area outside a designated nonrural area, but only through non-regulated gathering lines is excluded from “transporting gas” (regulated gathering lines are treated differently under the bill’s language).
- 3Exclusion (ii): Movement of gas by the owner or operator of a plant for use as fuel, feedstock, or other plant-supporting purposes, if conducted through:
- 4- In-plant piping systems located entirely on the plant grounds, or
- 5- Transfer piping systems that extend less than 1 mile outside the plant grounds.
- 6The short title naming is the “Plant Safety Authorities Coordination Act of 2025.”
- 7The change is procedural/definitional and affects whether certain gas movements fall under federal pipeline-safety regulation; it does not create new requirements but adjusts coverage under existing law.