Our mission is to provide pipeline safety information, engagement, and advocacy in the public interest.
What We Do
Our focus is on pipeline safety information, engagement, and advocacy in the public interest. We see ourselves as catalysts for change throughout the entire life cycle of fossil fuel transportation infrastructure. This means taking meaningful action to transform pipeline safety culture, analyze and fill in the gaps in safety regulations and policies, and ensure that transparency and meaningful community engagement practices are a central feature of national and state pipeline safety programs .
Our scientifically-based information and research services allow local governments and communities to better understand and take control of their own safety by becoming more aware, informed, and engaged regarding fossil fuel pipeline safety throughout its entire life cycle: from wellhead to consumer and from planning, siting, and construction to abandonment or decommissioning.
As pipeline safety advocates our primary concern is protection of the public interest and the rights of individuals and communities. We work hand in hand with local communities and governments to ensure that existing and new fossil fuel infrastructure will be managed and regulated to protect the environment, public health, and community well-being. When pipeline accidents and incidents occur, our focus is on the welfare of victims and their families, and honoring their sacrifices by learning from such disasters with implementation of improved safety requirements. We also fight for greater transparency of information and processes since transparency is the cornerstone of trust. The public deserves answers to its questions around environmental, health, and safety concerns. Our advocacy means initiating and participating in a wide variety of engagement activities and coalitions, whether through formal committees, working groups, informal gatherings, or multi-stakeholder and rights-holder initiatives.
In pursuing our mission, we only use information based on the best available science regarding fossil fuel pipeline safety, and endeavor to communicate this information in a form that is easily accessible to a broad range of local and national audiences. We work with local, state, and federal legislators, and safety and siting agencies to provide the most current information possible in all fossil fuel pipeline matters. If we don’t have the answer, we know where to find the answer!
How We Do It: Finding Common Ground Through Common Language
Pipeline Safety Coalition benefits from over 20 years of on-the-ground experiences working alongside local communities to gather and share public health, environmental, and technical safety information. We have also spent years developing and maintaining relationships with people in the grassroots, private, academic, technical, business, and government sectors.
These experiences and relationships have made clear that amplifying our vision and mission, and developing and implementing our information and research services, engagement activities, and advocacy, means first finding common ground through common language. We need a common language for talking about improving pipeline safety across multiple public and private interests. A common language is critical when communicating complex and controversial technological, environmental, governance, and societal issues related to pipeline infrastructure.
Pipeline Safety Coalition defines the term “pipeline safety” as protection of people, places, and the natural environment from the dangers and risks associated with fossil fuel and hazardous materials infrastructure. Our focus is on the dangers and risks to public health, community well-being and human rights, economic livelihoods, historic or culturally significant places, and ecologically sensitive or important areas during the planning, siting, construction, operation, and abandonment or decommissioning of pipeline facilities.
In order to evaluate “pipeline safety” in the United States, and analyze what the Nation is doing right and what still needs improvement, Pipeline Safety Coalition keeps a close eye on national trends, annually and across years. The five key measures we will be keeping close tabs on beginning in 2020 are:
1. The number of National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Recommendation Subjects that are adopted by PHMSA and others.
2. The number of pipeline Corrective Orders issued by PHMSA.
3. The amount levied in fines to pipeline operators and facility owners by type of violation.
4. The relative trend in pipeline accidents and incidents by type, probable cause, and region.
5. The number and type of pipeline Special Permits issued by PHMSA.
Who We Work With
We fulfill our mission by working alongside local communities, pipeline operators, pipeline regulators, survivors of pipeline incidents and accidents, and pipeline workers and utility contractors. Together we advocate for greater transparency regarding the entire life cycle of fossil fuel pipeline infrastructure, especially related to emergency preparedness, response, and recovery.
We believe that community residents living near pipeline facilities and along pipeline right-of-ways, survivors of pipeline incidents and accidents, emergency managers, and environmental managers should have a stronger voice in state and national government decision-making. Their voices matter in the development of smarter, more robust, and enforceable pipeline safety regulations, policies, industry standards, and best practices that account for economic, environmental, and public health and safety risks at each step of the infrastructure life cycle, from wellhead to consumer and from planning, siting, and construction to abandonment or decommissioning.
In our advocacy, we are clear that fostering meaningful engagement on fossil fuel pipeline safety is tied to equitable, just, and safe energy transitions. This requires an “all hands on deck” approach. Therefore, we seek dialogue and long-term relationships in advocating for continual improvements and necessary regulatory and policy reforms in pipeline safety with everyone who will participate: pipeline operators, utilities, banks, insurers, contractors, workers, regulating and permitting agencies, engineers and scientists, local governments, emergency managers, landowners, excavators and developers, sovereign indigenous nations, survivors of pipeline incidents and accidents, and national, state, and local elected officials.
Still have questions about what we do? Want to know how we can be of service to you and your community? Want to get involved in our public safety engagement and advocacy work?