Earlier this month Sen Sheehy (R,WY) introduced S 2971, the Plant Safety Authorities Coordination Act of 2025. This bill would modify the current definition of the term ‘transporting gas’ in 49 USC 60101. The bill would remove from the definition ‘in-plant piping systems’. No new spending is authorized.
Definition
The sole purpose of this bill is to modify, and limit somewhat, the definition of the term ‘transporting gas’ found in §60101(21). In addition to some formatting and minor wording changes in paragraph (A), the bill would add a second exclusion to the existing paragraph (B):
“(ii) the movement of gas by the owner or operator of a plant for use as a fuel, a feedstock, or for any other purpose that directly supports plant operations through—
“(I) in-plant piping systems that are located entirely on the grounds of the plant; or
“(II) transfer piping systems that extend less than 1 mile in length outside the grounds of the plant.”.
Moving Forward
Sheehy is a member of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered in committee. I expect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for this bill, though there may be some environmental opposition. This bill is not politically important enough to be considered by the Senate under regular order, and the environmental opposition would almost certainly stop consideration under the Senate’s unanimous consent process.
Commentary
It would seem that the current definition’s use {in paragraph (A)} of the phrase “in interstate or foreign commerce” would already exclude the ‘in-plant piping’ and ‘transfer piping’ being specifically excluded in this proposed language. Having said that, someone has reason to believe that there are times/places where these new exclusions would save a facility money or regulatory attention, probably where a transfer piping moved material across a state boundary, raising the ‘interstate commerce’ issue.