The NPRM is directed to implement congressional mandates in response to the congressional mandates from the Leonel Rondon Pipeline Safety Act and the over pressurization distribution incident in Merrimack Valley, MA back in 2018. It includes changes for:
Updates to Emergency Response Communications
Updates to Operations and Maintenance Procedural Manuals
New Recordkeeping Requirements
Monitoring of Gas Systems by Qualified Personnel to monitor certain construction projects
Requirements for New Regulator Stations
Construction Inspections for Gas Transmission Pipelines and Distribution Mains
Clarification for Tests on Gas Distribution Systems
Annual Reporting
Miscellaneous Amendments Pertaining to Part 192-Regulated Gas Gathering Pipelines
PURPA, passed by Congress in 1978, aimed to spur domestic energy production. Under the law, utilities outside organized wholesale markets are generally obligated to buy electricity from wind and solar facilities no larger than 80 MW, called qualifying facilities, or QFs.
In the late 2010s, some states and utilities started calling for changes to FERC’s PURPA rules, arguing in part it forces utilities to...Read More>>>
Flawed methodology, lack of emissions or exposure measurement raises doubt.
No linkage exists between natural gas development and adverse birth outcomes and nearly all cancers studied in a series of University of Pittsburgh-led reports released last night.
The Health and Environment Study, which was funded by former Governor Wolf’s administration with taxpayer dollars and has been in progress since 2021, aimed to explore potential correlations between unconventional natural gas development and...Read More>>>
In an aggressive move that angered Republicans, the Biden administration canceled the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, overturning sales held in the Trump administration’s waning days, and proposed stronger protections against development on vast swaths of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The Department of Interior’s scrapping of the leases comes after the Biden administration disappointed environmental groups earlier this year by approving the...Read More>>>
