In a recent press release, PHMSA announced that it sought $9.7 million in civil penalties against pipeline operators in 2013, the highest annual amount in the Agency’s history. This follows a trend of increasing penalty assessments by the Agency, which has proposed more than $33 million in penalties since 2009. By comparison, PHMSA sought $23 million in proposed penalties during the previous five-year period (2004-2008). PHMSA also reported issuance of 544 enforcement orders over the past five years, with more than half of those – 266 – in 2013 alone. In addition, for enforcement cases involving civil penalties or proposed compliance actions filed over the period of 2009-2013, PHMSA reportedly reduced its average time to initiate and fully close an enforcement case by 65 percent. Since proposing its first penalty in excess of $1 million in 2006, the Agency has proposed 7 additional penalties over $ 1 million, 2 of which were proposed in 2013.
Continue Reading PHMSA Publicizes Enforcement Record, Seeks to Cut Staff