President Obama signed H.R. 2845, the “Pipeline Safety, Regulatory Certainty, and Job Creation Act of 2011” into law on January 3, 2012. Among other pipeline safety requirements, this bill doubles the maximum civil fine for all safety violations; requires operators to confirm, through records or testing, the MAOP of certain untested gas pipelines in populated areas; requires PHMSA to establish time limits for accident and incident notification; authorizes PHMSA to recover costs for design review for projects totaling at least $2.5 billion; requires PHMSA to study whether depth of cover was a contributing factor to hazardous liquid incidents at water crossings; and requires PHMSA to consider certain factors and, if appropriate, to issue regulations requiring automatic shut-off valves on new or replaced pipelines where economically, technically and operationally feasible. Notably, some of the provisions may be self-implementing and effective immediately, including the requirement that operators report exceedances above 110% MAOP on gas transmission lines on or before 5 days from the exceedance. Click here for the text of HR 2845 as signed by the President.