Comment from Anonymous

PHMSA-2025-0135 Federal Register Notice - PUBLIC COMMENT PHMSA must not make the proposed changes to Part 190.341(d)(2) that would limit the permit conditions. PHMSA did not give any explanation on what types of permit conditions this change would limit in the Federal Register public notice. My review of several issued special permits (conditions for similar regulations, such as class location changes, odorization, plastic pipe, and code compliance issues) listed on the PHMSA pipeline website found that PHMSA was consistent on the permit conditions over many years. Any changes in the permit conditions were due to regulation changes, technology updates, NTSB findings/recommendations, Congressional requirements, and operational pipeline conditions. I think PHMSA was incorrect in the public notice when they stated "PHMSA has in the past often imposed conditions that are not directly, or even substantially, related to the requirement in the Federal Pipeline Safety Regulations that the applicant asked to be waived". PHMSA should impose conditions that protect the public from harm when the regulation requirement is being lowered for an operator's financial benefit. Based upon the number of permits requested by operators over the past 15 to 20 years, it seems that the permits were beneficial from an operational, financial, and new technology standpoints. The proposed limitations proposed by PHMSA to Part 190.341(d)(2) will put the overall public that lives near a natural gas pipeline more at risk from a pipeline leak or failure. PHMSA is requested to not go-forward with adding the proposed wording to Part 190.341(d)(2) due to negative impacts from pipeline leaks and failures to the public and the environment. Also, PHMSA did not identify the permit conditions that it was trying to limit so that the public could give comments on them.