Oil and gas industry writes its own standards

By Andrew Restuccia
8/13/10 5:31 PM Digg Tweet

This story is the third in a series on federal oversight of the nation’s 2.3 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines. You can read the first story here and the second story here.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, the federal agency that oversees the country’s 2.3 million miles of oil and natural gas pipelines, has adopted as part of its regulations all or parts of at least 29 standards written by the oil and natural gas industry.

The revelation, which comes to light as part of an investigation into pipeline safety by The Washington Independent, raises significant questions about the relationship between PHMSA and the industry that it regulates. It also feeds into comparisons between the agency and the now-defunct Minerals Management Service, which was in charge of permitting and licensing offshore drilling projects in the run-up to the April 20 Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting oil spill....continued...