Support strong community safety for carbon pipelines!

Please support the strongest community safety for carbon pipelines!

Dear Deputy Administrator Tristan Brown, The proposed Summit Pipeline is not just a threat to our way of life in the midwest; it is a threat to the health and safety of communities across the heartland. As the Deputy Administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), we need you to act expeditiously and propose the strongest version of Pipeline Safety: Safety of Carbon Dioxide and Hazardous Liquid Pipelines (2137-AF60) possible. Carbon pipelines are now being proposed and built across the region, and our communities are lacking strong standards for community safeguards. The rule making should include standards that: - Apply to all pipelines that transport CO2 in all phases, including supercritical, gas and liquid forms - Develop a Potential Impact Area (PIR) for plume dispersion that is attentive to the unique characteristics of CO2, and provide complete transparency on the plume dispersion modeling utilized - Require studies and best practices to be developed concerning the effects of corrosion, dents, or other abnormalities for steel grades utilized in CO2 pipeline operations, including for any contaminants that can interact in unpredictable ways - Requiring odorization of the transported CO2 as a leak detection strategy for emergency response and public safety - Strengthen regulations for conversion of existing pipelines to CO2 service, and require operators to fully track carbon dioxide from entry to exit in the entirety of the system - Set specifications for modeling that will determine standards for identifying a High Consequence Area, and appropriate construction standards to mitigate risk to people and livestock - Ensure that the rule makes clear that local governments and states retain jurisdiction to make routing decisions and land use decisions, including construction setbacks, even if safety is a consideration Current regulatory gaps related to the transport of CO2 from CCS projects in pipelines are a clear and present danger to communities across the country. The proposed Summit Pipeline, cutting an enormous swath across the midwest, needs to have safeguards in place that are specific to the transport of captured CO2. Please help protect our communities by providing needed oversight through proposing the Pipeline Safety: Safety of Carbon Dioxide and Hazardous Liquid Pipelines in 2024 with the above suggested regulations. Thank you for your time and consideration.