S 8042: Requires gas pipeline facilities to accelerate the repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of equipment or pipelines that are leaking or leak prone and increase safety reporting relating to gas pipeline leaks; requires the public service commission to establish timelines for the repair, rehabilitation or replacement of leaking or leak prone infrastructure; requires the commission to provide a gas safety report to the legislature.

  
  STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8042 2025-2026 Regular Sessions  IN SENATE May 15, 2025 ___________ Introduced by Sen. KAVANAGH -- read twice and ordered printed, and when printed to be committed to the Committee on Energy and Telecommuni- cations AN ACT to amend the public service law, in relation to requiring gas pipeline facilities to accelerate the repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of equipment or pipelines that are leaking or at a high risk of leaking and increase safety reporting relating to gas pipeline leaks The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. The public service law is amended by adding a new section 2 66-x to read as follows: 3 § 66-x. Pipeline modernization and consumer protection. 1. As used in 4 this section, "gas pipeline facility" means (a) a distribution facility, 5 and (b) a gas utility. 6 2. Each operator of a gas pipeline facility shall identify and accel- 7 erate the repair, rehabilitation, and replacement of gas piping or 8 equipment that is: 9 (a) leaking; or 10 (b) classified as a leak prone pipe may pose high risks of leaking, or 11 may no longer be fit for service, because of: (i) inferior materials, 12 (ii) poor construction practices, (iii) lack of maintenance, or (iv) 13 age. 14 3. In complying with subdivision two of this section, each operator of 15 a gas pipeline shall: 16 (a) provide the commission with an inventory of all gas piping or 17 equipment within the operator's service area that is leaking, contains 18 leak prone pipe, may pose high risks of leaking, or may no longer be fit 19 for service; EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD06373-03-5 
 S. 8042 2 1 (b) repair or replace any portion of a leaking gas pipeline facility 2 to cease such leak within the timeframes established by the commission 3 pursuant to subdivision four of this section; and 4 (c) replace leak prone pipe within the timeframes established by the 5 commission pursuant to subdivision four of this section. 6 4. The commission shall: 7 (a) develop prioritized timelines to repair all leaks from all gas 8 piping or equipment within an operator's service area including non-ha- 9 zardous leaks, or replace identified leaking or high-risk piping or 10 equipment, including leaks identified as part of an integrity management 11 plan developed under this section if applicable; 12 (b) define all leak prone pipe that may pose high risks of leaking, or 13 may no longer be fit for service, because of: (i) inferior materials, 14 (ii) poor construction practices, (iii) lack of maintenance, or (iv) 15 age. The commission shall define all cast and wrought iron pipe within 16 an operator's service area as leak prone pipe; 17 (c) adopt a cost-recovery program that includes (i) replacement plans 18 with targets and benchmarks for leaking or high-risk infrastructure 19 replacement, (ii) consideration of the economic, safety, and environ- 20 mental benefits of reduced gas leakage, including consideration of 21 reduced operation and maintenance costs and reduced costs attributable 22 to lost or unaccounted-for natural gas, and (iii) reporting on the 23 reductions in lost or unaccounted-for gas as a result of pipeline 24 replacements required by this section; 25 (d) adopt a standard definition and methodology for calculating and 26 reporting unaccounted-for gas to improve data quality; 27 (e) adopt limits on cost recovery for the lost and unaccounted-for 28 gas; 29 (f) require use of best available technology to detect gas leaks; and 30 (g) adopt a standard for identifying the environmental risks caused by 31 gas leaks in the gas pipeline distribution system. 32 5. No later than one year after the effective date of this section, 33 the commission shall, after notice and opportunity to comment, issue 34 rules identifying best practices for identifying and classifying high- 35 risk pipeline infrastructure and leaks for repair or replacement and 36 further defining leak prone pipe as necessary to comply with this 37 section. 38 6. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, no 39 later than one year after the effective date of this section, the 40 commission shall establish and publish forms that adopt a standard defi- 41 nition and methodology for calculating and reporting unaccounted-for 42 gas, including, when possible, information on the causes of unaccount- 43 ed-for gas and the quantities associated with each cause, for use by 44 applicable state agencies to standardize the data collected on unac- 45 counted-for gas. 46 7. Operators of gas pipeline facilities in cities with a population of 47 one million or more shall establish a database of pipeline infrastruc- 48 ture that includes its age and state of repair and shall share this 49 information with the coordinated building inspection data analysis 50 system. 51 8. The commission shall prescribe such rules and regulations as it may 52 deem necessary to carry into effect the provisions of this section. 53 § 2. Section 66-u of the public service law is amended by adding a new 54 subdivision 4 to read as follows: 55 4. The commission shall, no later than July first of each year, 56 provide a gas safety report to the chairperson of the senate committee 
 S. 8042 3 1 on energy and telecommunications and the assembly committee on energy. 2 The gas safety report shall summarize: 3 (a) the amount of remaining pipeline replacement work for gas corpo- 4 ration; 5 (b) the amount of annual pipeline replacement work that the department 6 has authorized for each gas corporation for the current year and subse- 7 quent two years; 8 (c) the extent to which the annual authorizations described in para- 9 graph (b) of this subdivision have been revised as a result of any 10 ruling by the commission since the time of the last report; 11 (d) the amount of pipeline replacement work performed by each gas 12 corporation in the prior calendar year; 13 (e) the adequacy of field personnel that each gas company has allo- 14 cated toward pipeline replacement work, including the quality of any 15 training or certifications associated with this work; 16 (f) any penalties, fines, or violations imposed by the department on a 17 gas corporation for failing to complete that corporation's pipeline 18 replacement work during the prior calendar year; and 19 (g) the extent to which any of the findings in the report required by 20 the subdivision, in the report described in subdivision one of this 21 section, or actions taken by the commission in subdivision three of this 22 section, materially change the scope or schedule for replacing the 23 remaining pipelines described in paragraph (a) of this subdivision. 24 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.