New Safety Bill Excludes Rural Gas Gathering, Plant Piping Under 1 Mile from Federal Oversight

The “Plant Safety Authorities Coordination Act of 2025” sounds like something only a lawyer could love, but Section 2 is actually a big deal for anyone living near a gas plant or a rural gas operation. Essentially, this bill is redefining what counts as “transporting gas” under federal safety rules (specifically 49 U.S.C. 60101(a)(21)), and by doing so, it’s carving out two specific exemptions that will no longer be subject to federal safety oversight.

The Fine Print on Gas Lines

Think of federal safety rules as the baseline requirements for how pipelines are built, maintained, and inspected. This bill removes two types of gas movement from that baseline jurisdiction. First, it excludes gas gathering operations in “rural areas,” unless the Secretary of Transportation specifically designates that area as nonrural. This means the vast network of smaller pipes collecting gas out in the country will largely operate without federal oversight, relying instead on state or local regulations—or perhaps none at all, depending on the area.

Second, and perhaps more crucially for industrial areas, the bill excludes gas movement that supports a plant’s own operations (like using gas for fuel or feedstock). This exemption applies even if the pipes leave the plant’s property line, provided the external pipe segment is less than one mile long. For a plant manager, this is a huge regulatory win, streamlining compliance for short-distance piping needed to connect facilities or access nearby resources.

Who’s on the Hook for Safety Now?

This is where the rubber meets the road—or, in this case, where the pipe meets the ground. For companies, these exemptions mean reduced regulatory burden and potentially lower compliance costs. If you run a small gathering operation in a rural county, you won't have to navigate the full suite of federal regulations. Similarly, a manufacturing facility needing a short pipe run to connect two buildings just under a mile apart avoids federal red tape.

However, for the general public, this is a trade-off. Federal oversight, while sometimes cumbersome, provides a consistent, national safety standard. By excluding rural gathering and short, near-site plant piping, the bill shifts responsibility for maintaining safety standards to state and local authorities, or potentially leaves a regulatory gap entirely. If you live near a rural gathering line or just outside a plant’s perimeter, the safety of that under-a-mile pipe segment might now rely on localized rules, which can vary wildly in rigor and enforcement. The concern here is that reduced federal oversight could lead to inconsistencies in safety practices right where people live and work.

The One-Mile Loophole

The most specific detail here is that one-mile limit for on-site plant movement. This creates a clear incentive for industrial facilities to design their piping systems to ensure they never cross that one-mile threshold outside the property line, specifically to avoid federal regulation. While this might seem like smart regulatory maneuvering, it highlights a potential vulnerability: a pipeline 0.9 miles long near a residential area will be treated differently than one 1.1 miles long, solely based on a regulatory line drawn in the sand, not necessarily on the actual risk posed. This provision provides clear regulatory relief to industry, but it also raises questions about whether safety is best served by drawing such precise, arbitrary lines in areas where the public could still be impacted by an incident.