The State of Mississippi has recently revised Title 77 – Public Utilities and Carriers; Chapter 13 – Regulation of Excavations Near Underground Utility Facilities. In addition to various changes to the existing rules on excavation damage prevention, the rule creates a new Design Information Request, requiring response within 7 days by utility owners to a…
June 2018
Audit of FERC Certification Process
The Office of Inspector General within the Department of Energy has published a report from its recent audit of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Natural Gas Certification Process (a.k.a. a FERC Certificate). Excerpts from that report include: While nothing came to our attention to indicate that natural gas certification applications had been inappropriately approved or…
Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee (GPAC)
The next GPAC meeting is scheduled for Thursday, September 6, 2018 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and on Friday, September 7 from 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The GPAC meeting will discuss the NPRM, Pipeline Safety: Safety of Gas Gathering Lines. (See related article in the April 2018 edition of the DOT Pipeline Compliance…
GAO Report on PHMSA / State Inspection Resource Needs
GAO-18-461: Published: May 29, 2018. Publicly Released: May 29, 2018 The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recently looked into federal and state responsibilities for interstate pipeline inspections. While PHMSA expanded its inspector workforce by 25% between 2012 and 2017, the agency hasn’t planned for future workforce needs—for example, it hasn’t assessed how states can help…
Joint Industry Comments Submitted to Docket
Joint industry comments from API, INGAA, AGA and APGA have been submitted to the docket for the pending notice of proposed rulemaking “Safety of Gas Transmission Pipelines: Repair Criteria, Integrity Management Improvements, Cathodic Protection, Management of Change, and Other Related Amendments”. This NPRM is one of three rules that were split out of the original…
2018 Industry Conference Schedule
2018 APGA ANNUAL CONFERENCEJuly 22 – 25, 2018Hilton Portland DowntownPortland, OR The American Public Gas Association (APGA) Annual Conference is the largest gathering of municipal natural gas professionals across the nation. From the educational sessions with key industry figures generating new ideas to networking opportunities with hundreds of colleagues from across the nation, the APGA…
Pressure Testing Webinar – Advantages of Using TestOp®
RCP will be hosting webinar presentations to discuss pipeline pressure testing practices and demonstrate the advantages of utilizing new technology for planning, designing, and capturing real-time data to validate and document whether it was a successful test. The same technology that RCP has used for the past six years to validate our customer’s pressure tests…