Mike Soraghan with “E&E News” noted in a recent Energywire article that PHMSA’s fines for pipeline safety violations have trended significantly higher in the past couple of years. Per the article: “Federal civil penalties for pipeline safety violations topped $10 million for the first time in 2021 and rose again last year to $11.6 million. During the Trump administration, fines averaged about $4.5 million per year.” It also noted that the average penalty in 2022 was nearly $264,000, and the YTD 2023 average is $367,000, while also noting that annual average fine amounts are heavily weighted by one or two very large fines in a year.
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