Each year since 2021, the Pipeline Safety Trust has received federal funds under a carve-out program within PHMSA’s Technical Assistance Grant program. The awards are intended to improve pipeline safety public engagement among regulators, the pipeline industry, and the public. The awards are predicated on the idea that public engagement among stakeholders will be improved by a public that is more informed about pipeline safety and with more accessible avenues to engagement. This section of the website is intended to offer transparency around PST’s work that is funded by the grant dollars.
PHMSA TAG Grants Support the Following Pipeline Safety Trust Work and Programs:
Resources
Pipeline Safety Trust uses grant funds to create foundational educational resources about matters of pipeline safety. From our Briefing Papers to our Landowner’s and Resident’s Guide to Pipelines – it is our goal to make sure that the public is provided with free educational materials in order to increase their knowledge of pipeline safety issues.
View our briefing papers and landowner’s and resident’s guide.
Pipeline 101
PST uses grant funds to host educational sessions for members of the public. These events provide a space for the public to learn about how pipeline systems work, how they’re regulated, and how the public can be engaged to support pipeline safety. This allows members of the public to be more informed on issues that affect them and empowers them to participate in supporting pipeline safety in their own communities.
Regulatory Training
PST uses grant funds to provide continuing education experiences for staff and members of the public, such as attending regulatory training sessions. These training sessions increase pipeline safety expertise and more well-informed safety advocates.
Learn more about one of our legacy projects, “The New Voices Project.” The New Voices Project focused on equipping members of the public with regulatory training so they could become new leaders in pipeline safety.
In Sept. 2025, Nora Harren (Office Associate) and Rebecca Orrison (Data Manager) attended the DOT Compliance Workshop, hosted by the RCP Inc.’s Pipeline Safety Institute in Houston, TX. Rebecca and Nora gained a comprehensive understanding of pipeline regulations.
Each year, PST conducts a review of each state’s pipeline safety website, as well as the District of Columbia’s, to determine the amount of publicly available information and how accessible it is to members of the public. PHMSA’s TAG grant makes this review possible.
Each year since 2006, the Pipeline Safety Trust has hosted pipeline safety conferences. What makes Pipeline Safety Trust conferences unique among pipeline conferences is the diverse mix of attendees, including the affected public, the pipeline industry, union representatives, and government regulators. These individuals come together to discuss the barriers to safer pipelines. Through this collaborative approach, the conference promotes better understanding and trust between these groups, enabling us to move forward together in our mutual goal of making pipelines as safe as possible.
Pipeline Safety Trust is grateful for the federal grant that helps pay for this conference.
PST uses grant money to send staff to public meetings, industry conferences, and trainings. Attendance at these events help PST learn more about pipeline safety issues, inform others of our work and educational resources, and ensure the public’s voice is heard by pipeline safety stakeholders.
Examples of Meetings and Conferences PST attends and presents the perspective of the impacted public include:
- API Pipeline Conference
- International Right of Way Conference
- PHMSA Public Meetings
- PHMSA R&D Forum
- National Association of Pipeline Safety Representatives (NAPSR) National and Regional Meetings
- Association for Materials Protection and Performance (AMPP) Conference
- Common Ground Alliance Conference
- American Gas Association Operations Conference
- International Pipeline Conference & Expo (IPCE)
- Western Regional Gas Conference
The project, “Examining Best Practices for Enhanced Pipeline Public Engagement,” by Dr. Kirk Jalbert at the University at Buffalo was made possible through grant funding. The project, asks the question, “How, when, and why are operators engaging with the public?”
Watch a presentation about the public engagement research project below.
One of Pipeline Safety Trust’s main goals is make existing pipeline safety statistics and data easily accessible for all who want them. The examples of data analysis and projects below are made possible by PHMSA’s Tag grant.
View our Pipeline Safety Statistics page here.
The Monthly Incident Dashboard
This dashboard offers a set of tools where users can decide how to rate the “worst” incident each month. On the bottom of the sidebar, users can select which of the following variables determines the worst monthly incidents: release size, damage cost, deaths, or deaths plus injuries.
Data Visualization Examples
In the past 15 years, there has been little improvement in the number of pipeline incidents – more work is needed.
State Transparency Five-Year Change
This Figure shows how states’ transparency scores have changed in the last five years, since 2020’s review. The darker blue represents scores from 2025 while the lighter blue represents scores from 2020. For states with improvements in their transparency over that time, the darker circles are on the right and the lighter blue are on the left, however when these are flipped transparency has declined. Most states have improved, with several showing particularly strong gains. In contrast, a few states have seen their scores decrease, signifying a loss of transparency over the years. States starting from zero are newcomers to the PST review this year.
The State of Safety
The State of Safety blog and data visualization series was created to help members of the public learn more about their state’s individual pipeline safety track record.
Find all of our current entries by clicking on a highlighted state on the map below.
We welcome questions from the public on topics of pipeline safety that affect them. We often receive questions after incidents and when pipelines are new to an area. Members of the public often ask about the safety risks from different pipelines, information about pipeline regulations and regulators, and about what to expect living in proximity to pipelines.
In response to questions from members of the public, we may answer directly, direct them to publicly available resources, or put them in touch with a government resource or an operator. To ensure efficient use of industry resources, we only do that for special cases where we believe it is the best path forward.
The types of inquiries PST receives from the public vary quite a bit but below is a summary of the most common categories, roughly in order of how common.
- Landowner issues: Many questions related to safety such as worries about the safety of a pipeline on their property or a property they’re thinking of buying. Sometimes because there’s a new pipeline, or new development near an existing pipeline, or other new risk factors that someone is worried will affect their safety. Or a purchase of property makes them wonder about the risk they’re taking on.
- Basic information: People reach out with questions about the basics of pipelines including defining terms or what different pieces of pipeline systems do.
- CO2 and hydrogen: People usually reach out about new projects in their communities, voice their concerns, and ask what that these projects will mean for them.
- Emergency response and operator interactions: PST gets reports from the public after a leak or incident. Also, people share their stories of being impacted by pipeline incidents or by pipeline operator actions.
Do you have a question? Feel free to submit it here!