"The proposed safety rules would have been the first."

"Nearly five years after a pipeline spewed poison gas across a Mississippi town, federal regulators appeared ready in recent weeks to institute new safety rules aimed at preventing similar accidents across the U.S.’s fast-growing network of carbon dioxide pipelines.

But the proposed rules, unveiled five days before the end of Joe Biden’s presidency, were quietly derailed during the first weeks of President Donald Trump’s second term.

A federal pipeline safety official not authorized to speak publicly said the proposed rules were “withdrawn” in accordance with a January 20 executive order that freezes all pending regulations and initiates a review process by Trump’s newly appointed agency leaders. Putting the pipeline rules in further doubt is a February 19 executive order aimed at rooting out all regulations that are costly to “private parties” and impede economic development.

Trump’s choice to lead the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, or PHMSA, which proposed the rules, is Paul Roberti, an attorney strongly backed by pipeline and energy industry groups. Roberti, who is awaiting Senate confirmation, oversaw PHMSA’s safety enforcement during Trump’s first term, a time marked by fewer citations and smaller fines than the Obama and Biden administrations."

Tristan Baurick reports for Grist and Verite March 10, 2025. [2]