Investing in collaboration for safety: Assessing grants to states for oil and gas distribution pipeline safety program enhancement

Ryan P. Scott and Tyler A. Scott

Energy Policy, 2019, vol. 124, issue C, 332-345

Abstract: Oil and gas pipeline leaks are the responsibility of a wide range of stakeholders including utilities, the public, construction firms and state safety program personnel. As a result, in the United State, state pipeline safety programs focus heavily on public education, outreach, and stakeholder participation so as to reduce the occurrence of these events. The US Pipeline & Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) directs federal support to state safety efforts through formula and project grant programs for state and local agencies that emphasize different aspects of collaboration. We combine these grant data with nationwide, longitudinal records on pipeline leaks, and use a multilevel Bayesian model to evaluate how different grant emphases relate to subsequent incident rates. State damage prevention grants are not associated with reductions in leaks but are associated with improvements in error recognition. Pipeline incidents are downstream from safety programs and impacts and identifying, minimizing, and correcting leaks requires states to motivate utility actions while also attempting to improve public awareness. This makes assessment of safety outcomes a challenge without better tracking of safety program communications and participation. In conclusion, we suggest improvements to data provision by states that could provide improved evidence for assessing safety improvements.

Keywords: Pipelines; Safety; Collaborative governance; Risk management; Intergovernmental transfers (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421518306591
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:enepol:v:124:y:2019:i:c:p:332-345

DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2018.10.007

Access Statistics for this article

Energy Policy is currently edited by N. France

More articles in Energy Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().