USA Pipelines Get $196MM in Repair Grants

The U.S. Transportation Department on Wednesday began distribution for this year’s phase of a five-year $1-billion grant to rehabilitate public-owned natural gas pipelines, it said, announcing $196 million for 19 states.

Las Cruces city in New Mexico state will get $10 million as the first recipient among “more than 20 communities”, the department said in a press release, not naming the other recipients.

“This funding to modernize our gas pipelines will help protect residents from dangerous leaks, create good-paying jobs, and reduce methane emissions in communities across the nation, particularly in rural and underserved areas,” said Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who will visit Las Cruces to hand its allotment.

“Investments in pipeline safety are investments in community safety and our shared environment”, said Tristan Brown, deputy administrator of the department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

The announcement was part of President Joe Biden’s “Investing in America” tour, a three-week expedition to over 20 states that kicked off last week. The tour seeks to highlight how the administration is growing the U.S. economy through a “middle-out and bottom-up” approach, a White House briefing said March 24. Among the agenda are investments listed under the American Rescue Plan, the CHIPS and Science Act, the Inflation Reduction Act and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

The grants announced Wednesday are under the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) Grant Program of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. They cover nearly 270 miles of pipe, the Transportation Department said in Wednesday’s announcement.

The grants totaling $1 billion from 2021 to 2026 “shall be available to a municipality or community owned utility (not including for-profit entities) to repair, rehabilitate, or replace its natural gas distribution pipeline system or portions thereof or to acquire equipment to (1) reduce incidents and fatalities and (2) avoid economic losses”, the legislation states.

Improvements to pipelines under the grants are also expected to reduce methane emissions by about 212 metric tons annually, the Transportation Department said.

The grants are also projected to employ hundreds of people in both rural and urban localities, the release said.

The next batch of the NGDISM grant, at $392, is expected to be released next month, it added.

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