USDOT recently opened applications for $200 million in grant opportunities to help counties repair aging natural gas infrastructure and reduce energy costs.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) is soliciting grant applications for nearly $200 million as part of part of a first-of-its-kind program established by the historic Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization (NGDISM) grant program, is aimed at mitigating safety risks and methane emissions from high-risk and leak-prone legacy natural gas distribution pipes. To date, the grant program has provided nearly $600 million in funding to help lower energy costs for consumers and modernize infrastructure that has been around for decades, with some from as far back as the Civil War Era.
The funding opportunity is open to all municipal or community-owned utilities (excluding for-profit entities) seeking assistance in repairing, rehabilitating, or replacing high-risk, leak-prone natural gas distribution infrastructure. Examples of projects funded by the program include:
- Richmond Gas Works (Richmond, VA) – $49 million to replace over 42 miles of cast-iron, ductile iron, and steel natural gas mains on a system where some parts are over 170 years old.
- City of Donaldsonville (Donaldsonville, LA) – $30 million to repair and replace existing gas lines to reduce leaks throughout its distribution system and lower energy costs for the city’s underprivileged customers.
- Philadelphia Gas Works (Philadelphia, PA) – $85 million to replace 46 miles of “at-risk” cast iron pipes in historically disadvantaged areas throughout the city to modernize its natural gas infrastructure, minimize service disruptions, and support economic development.
Funds can also be used to acquire equipment that will assist in reducing natural gas distribution pipeline incidents and fatalities, as well as to avoid economic loss from leaks.
Collectively, these projects will reduce the risk of methane leakage, which has nearly 80 times the global warming potential as carbon dioxide, and reduce energy costs associated with the repair of legacy pipes, which PHMSA otherwise requires as part of each natural gas distribution system’s Distribution Integrity Management Plan.
Final award selections will consider a project’s economic benefit to disadvantaged rural or urban communities, the quality and number of applications received, the dollar amount requested, and other factors listed in the Notice of Funding Opportunity. The deadline to apply for the latest request for grant applications is June 20, 2024.
