GAO Report Pushes For PHMSA Regulatory Assessment

On June 22, 2021, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report titled "Performance Measures Needed to Assess Recent Changes to Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Regulations." The Report recommends the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) develop and use performance measures to assess whether the changes made by PHMSA's final rule, "Pipeline Safety: Safety of Hazardous Liquid Pipelines" (2019 Rule), have achieved, or will achieve, the desired outcomes and improved pipeline safety. Under the recommendation, PHMSA should include targets for the expected levels of performance hazardous liquid pipeline operators should achieve and specific timeframes in which to achieve those results. It is unclear whether hazardous liquid pipeline operators would have to comply with interim performance targets on top of the 2019 Rule deadlines, or if PHMSA would merely use the timeframes to internally assess operator compliance. PHMSA should