Administration won’t toughen pipeline regs

The Transportation Department has decided against tightening its pipeline safety regulations following a congressionally mandated review, The Wall Street Journal reports.

The agency’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration launched the review in the aftermath of pipeline ruptures that caused hazardous materials to seep into U.S. waterways. The evaluation focused on whether underground pipelines need better protection against riverbed erosion.

But the study concluded that erosion contributed to only one in 200 serious hazardous-liquid incidents involving pipelines, according to the Journal.

In a letter to Congress, the agency argued that “existing legislative authority is adequate to address the risks of hazardous liquid pipeline failures at major river crossings.”

“The agency said that after its review, it sees no need to change existing regulations,” the Journal’s Jack Nicas writes.

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