Last month, Rep Molinaro (R,NY) introduced HR 6510, the Hydrogen Safety and Environmental Responsibility Act. This bill would require DOT to “complete a study assessing the potential and existing use of pipelines constructed with composite materials to safely transport hydrogen and hydrogen blended with natural gas.” No funding is authorized by this legislation.
Study Requirements
Section 2 of the bill would require the study to be completed within 18 months of enactment. In conducting the study, DOT would consider any:
Commercially available composite pipeline materials,
Completed or ongoing tests and data available to the Secretary or other Federal agencies, and
Recommended standards, including consensus standards, and Federal agency authorizations relating to use of the composite pipeline materials.
DOT would be required to engage with the public during the conduct of the study. It would have to hold at least one public meeting and publish a draft of the study for public comment. After the draft was published, DOT would be required to hold another public hearing to “address any substantive comments submitted by the public during the public comment period”.
Within 18 months of the second public hearing DOT would be required to complete a rulemaking (including a notice of proposed rulemaking) “to allow for the use of composite materials for pipeline transportation of hydrogen and hydrogen blended with natural gas.”
PIPES Act Version
A very similar version of this language was included in HR 6494, the PIPES Act of 2023. Section 14 of that bill would require the same study, except it would give DOT 24 months to complete the study instead of the 18 months provided in this bill.
Moving Forward
Both Molinaro and his sole cosponsor {Rep Allred (D,TX)} are members of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for primary consideration. This typically means that there could be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. There may be some objections to this bill from pipeline safety advocates, but I do not expect that there would be sufficient opposition to block passage in Committee. I suspect that there would be enough bipartisan support for this bill to move to the floor of the House under the suspension of the rules process.
Because there is similar language in HR 6494, there will be no action on this bill while the larger PIPES Act is pending consideration. This bill will move forward, only if HR 6494 fails (unlikely) or the composite pipe study requirement is removed from the final version of the bill.
Commentary
The requirement for this study in the bill is pro forma in nature. The heart of this bill is the requirement in §2(e) for DOT to move forward with a rulemaking “to allow for the use of composite materials for pipeline transportation of hydrogen and hydrogen blended with natural gas.”
The interest in composite materials in this bill is due to the fact that hydrogen gas is very reactive with most metals used in pipeline construction. This results in an increase in brittleness of the metal and a decrease in the strength of the pipeline. The composite material can be either a high-strength plastic pipe or a plastic lining to a conventional metal pipe.