Northern New Jersey is pockmarked on a map from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) showing pipeline and related fossil fuel facility accidents and incidents.
The map reveals gas transmission and hazardous liquid pipeline accidents and incidents going back to 2002 as well as the nation’s entire 2.8 million-mile pipeline network, over 17,000 underground natural gas wells, and 164 liquefied natural gas facilities.
PHMSA’s mission is to protect people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials that are essential to our daily lives.
Pipeline operators were recently alerted by the agency that they need to do more to protect the public and the environment by identifying and addressing potential leaks, according to the PHMSA.
That notice resulted from the Protecting Our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety (PIPES) Act of 2020, which was signed on December 27, 2020.
The bipartisan law is said to strengthen the agency’s safety authority and includes many provisions that will help it fulfill its mission of protecting people and the environment by advancing the safe transportation of energy and other hazardous materials but it faced congressional opposition from many of the advocates for a Green New Deal.
“Minimizing methane emissions from pipelines will help improve safety and combat climate change, while creating jobs for pipeline workers,” said PHMSA Acting Administrator Tristan Brown. “Pipeline operators have an obligation to protect the public and the environment by identifying and addressing methane leaks.”
Pipelines have caused massive explosions and leaks that are among the worst environmental disasters of all time.