A three-judge panel struck down four pipeline safety rules issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation in 2022.

The Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) celebrated the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision on August 16. The organization had brought the suit against five new regulations, claiming the new rules did not provide enough benefits to justify the costs associated with implementation.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), a division of the Department of Transportation, has 40 days to request a re-hearing from the appeals court.

“INGAA is pleased with the outcome of this case,” said Ben Kochman, INGAA’s director of pipeline safety policy, in an email to Hart Energy. “We look forward to working with PHMSA on continuing our efforts to improve pipeline safety, building upon the alternatives we proposed throughout the rulemaking process.”

The rules challenged in the suit were part of an overall safety rules package that PHMSA developed over a decade-long process, usually with support from the INGAA. The rules were primarily concerned with protecting the public from pipeline corrosion.

The court allowed one rule in the suit to stand, a regulation for monitoring a type of pipe anomaly that occurs when corrosion and high pressure causes cracks, Reuters reported.

“We agree with INGAA that the agency failed to adequately explain why the benefits of the final standards outweigh their costs,” wrote Judge Florence Pan, one of the judges on the panel. “Because the agency imposed a new safety requirement without properly addressing the costs of doing so, the standard cannot stand.”

According to the ruling, the appeals court fully vacated the four standards. To put the laws back on the books, the Department of Transportation will have to start a new rulemaking effort with a cost/benefit analysis that meets the court’s approval.

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