On Tuesday, March 25^th, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean P. Duffy announced that the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) will be encouraging all regulated pipeline owners and operators to voluntarily adopt new safety management systems (SMS). You can find DOT’s full statement, along with the Advisory Bulletin in the Federal Register that advocates for the voluntary adoption of pipeline SMS by all regulated pipeline owners and operators here.

In response to the advisory, NGA President and CEO José Costa released the following statement: “Safety is at the very core of what we do, and we applaud Secretary Duffy, PHMSA Acting Administrator Ben Kochman, and the entire DOT for their commitment to enhancing pipeline safety through innovative safety management systems, in pursuit of our ultimate goal of zero incidents.” Costa continued, “NGA members are leaders in implementing pipeline safety management systems, and the NGA membership collaborative approach to implementation is one of the largest coordinated PSMS implementation programs in the country. Our members are focused on learning from the past to build our safety future. Voluntary adoption of PSMS principles is crucial to building an enhanced safety culture.”

Learn more about NGA’s commitment to pipeline safety management systems here: https://northeastgas.org/psms-in-the-northeast