WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) today announced more than $49 million in Pipeline Safety Base Grants to reimburse a portion of operating costs for state pipeline safety programs.
“The Federal/state partnership is the cornerstone of the national pipeline safety program,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx. “State pipeline inspectors oversee more than 80 percent of the nation’s 2.6 million-mile pipeline network, and we want to make sure they have the resources needed to ensure the safety of the American people.”
PHMSA’s base grants provide a reimbursement of up to 80 percent of operating costs for state programs charged with inspecting intrastate transmission and distribution pipelines that transport natural gas, crude oil, and other energy products within state boundaries.
The grants include a maintenance of effort clause that requires each state to contribute the average of its last three years of contributions unless the state can demonstrate an inability to maintain or increase its contribution due to economic hardship.
“PHMSA’s base grants ensures funding for state programs that employ 340+ inspectors on the front lines of pipeline safety,” said PHMSA Administrator Marie Therese Dominguez. “This is a performance-based grant and is awarded based on the state’s estimated program costs and recent performance scores.”
The 2016 Natural Gas Pipeline State Base Grant recipients are:
• Alabama – $966,742
• Arizona – $1,046,861
• Arkansas – $559,011
• California – $3,370,388
• Colorado – $441,678
• Connecticut – $872,663
• Delaware – $159,359
• District of Columbia – $421,245
• Florida – 692,475
• Georgia – $1,284,420
• Idaho – $276,013
• Illinois – $1,855,604
• Indiana – $1,028,406
• Iowa – $781,125
• Kansas – $532,318
• Kentucky – $422,181
• Louisiana – $783,548
• Maine – $341,665
• Maryland – $548,678
• Massachusetts – $1,120,294
• Michigan – $955,642
• Minnesota – $1,415,359
• Mississippi – $331,189
• Missouri – $489,824
• Montana – $163,441
• Nebraska – $242,197
• Nevada – $586,791
• New Hampshire – $489,187
• New Jersey – $819,362
• New Mexico – $794,659
• New York – $5,139,674
• North Carolina – $478,843
• North Dakota – $240,307
• Ohio – $1,050,035
• Oklahoma – $1,128,340
• Oregon – $520,579
• Pennsylvania – $2,052,236
• Puerto Rico – $186,752
• Rhode Island – $80,183
• South Dakota – $252,481
• Tennessee – $585,465
• Texas – $4,257,578
• Utah – $314,723
• Vermont – $197,376
• Virginia – $1,553,789
• Washington – $1,539,366
• West Virginia – $711,811
• Wisconsin – $413,974
• Wyoming – $181,361
The 2016 Hazardous Liquid Pipeline State Base Grant recipients are:
• Alabama – $29,899
• Arizona – $55,098
• California – $2,031,502
• Indiana – $5,496
• Louisiana – $196,790
• Maryland – $19,903
• Minnesota – $260,717
• New Mexico – $43,228
• New York – $151,850
• Oklahoma – $230,686
• Texas – $1,296,181
• Virginia – $83,694
• Washington – $181,721
• West Virginia – $14,527 The mission of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration 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. PHMSA develops and enforces regulations for the safe operation of the nation's 2.6 million mile pipeline transportation system and the nearly one million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea, and air. Please visit http://phmsa.dot.gov or https://twitter.com/PHMSA_DOT for more information.
