As part of its rollout of Jobs and Infrastructure Investment Act funds, the U.S. Department of Transportation is seeking applicants for an estimated $196 million in grants to repair and upgrade natural gas pipelines.
DOT Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a June 18 statement that the grants, to be used from fiscal year 2024 funds, will cover work such as “the repair and replacement of corroded and obsolete natural gas pipelines which in some cases have been underground for more than a century.” “
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, a DOT agency in charge of the pipeline grant program, he said the selected projects will also reduce the risk of methane leaks. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says methane is “more than 28 times more powerful than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere.”
Assistant Administrator Tristan Brown said the first of its kind The program will save lives and ensure that “work that would otherwise take decades is completed in a matter of years.”
The infrastructure law provides a total of $1 billion over five years for the grants, which come from the Natural Gas Distribution Infrastructure Safety and Modernization Program, through which DOT has awarded about $600 million through now
Municipal or community-owned utilities are eligible for grants, except for for-profit organizations. The funds will focus on “high-risk and leak-prone natural gas distribution infrastructure,” the pipeline agency said.
Its May 9 notice formally opening the new round of grant applications said the maximum grant would be $125 million and the minimum grant would be $10,000.
The deadline for submitting applications is June 20, the agency said.
