GAO's Review of the Department of Transportation's Pipeline Safety Program

GAO discussed the federal role in regulating and enforcing pipeline safety and the Department of Transportation's (DOT) implementation of user fees for inspecting interstate pipeline companies. GAO found that DOT has not provided adequate inspection coverage of the interstate and intrastate pipeline operators for which it has responsibility, and may further reduce its inspection coverage. Some states have been acting as agents of the federal government on a voluntary basis and have indicated that they do not plan to assume responsibility for the intrastate gas pipelines or the intrastate hazardous liquids pipelines in their states when federal safety standards. Some states also indicated that they are considering discontinuing existing inspection activities. DOT is responsible for ensuring that participating state agencies are adequately enforcing federal safety standards. However, since state participation is voluntary, DOT does not have effective means for requiring states to correct program deficiencies or assume responsibility for additional pipeline systems. GAO recommended that DOT propose alternatives for meeting federal program responsibilities with inspection resources and improve its inspection activities and its evaluations of the states' pipeline safety programs. In addition, GAO believes that: (1) the imposition of user fees would be legal and feasible; (2) financing inspection costs through fees to pipeline companies and their customers would be more equitable than financing such costs with taxes; and (3) the impact of user fees on pipeline operators and their customers would be extremely small.