The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) today announced action and called for the pipeline industry to update their inspection and maintenance plans to reduce leaks of methane—a potent greenhouse gas—in natural gas distribution pipes in communities across the country.  Following the announcement, the BlueGreen Alliance released a statement from Executive DIrector Jason Walsh:

“We applaud PHMSA for their leadership. Allowing these leaks to continue is wasteful and dangerous. Taking the necessary steps to reduce them, like those included in today’s announcement, is a win for workers that will fix the pipes, communities that will be protected from unnecessary leaks, and clean air. We can create good-paying, union jobs improving our national gas distribution systems. These are jobs that are critically needed as our economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic. In the most recent jobs report we saw that the U.S. is currently 700,000 construction and manufacturing jobs behind where we were before the pandemic.

“Plugging up these wasteful, dangerous leaks and implementing the full American Jobs Plan are what we need to build back better.”