Investigation finds severe cuts to pipeline safety enforcement

A pipeline explosion in Beaver County in 2018 left homes destroyed, leading to fines and criminal charges against the pipeline company.Action News Investigates has learned the federal government has slashed pipeline safety enforcement in the past year. And the owner of the Beaver County pipeline is pushing for even steeper cuts.Action News Investigates: Watch the report in the video player aboveThe 2018 explosion was just hundreds of feet from the home of Barbara Goblick and her neighbors on Ivy Lane in Center Township.”I could see the orange glow through the closed drape, so I knew something was definitely wrong,” Goblick said. “I guess it felt like what an earthquake would feel like. I’m not really even sure. It’s just, the whole house shook.”The explosion destroyed a house down the street. Fortunately, the owner and his family escaped injury.”We took off and by the time we got halfway up the driveway, we turned around and looked down, and you could see the flames over the top of the house,” homeowner Sam Rosati said in 2018.The pipeline owner, Texas-based Energy Transfer, paid $30 million in state civil penalties. The company also pleaded no contest to nine misdemeanor counts for environmental crimes.Energy Transfer has also faced criminal and civil penalties for causing environmental damage related to the Mariner East pipeline, which stretches across Pennsylvania.Energy Transfer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.The director of a pipeline safety advocacy group said accidents and explosions are on the rise across the country. “We actually have had the deadliest two-year period in about 15 years,” said Bill Caram of the Pipeline Safety Trust.But an analysis by the safety trust shows fines by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration are significantly down during the Trump administration.From 2002 to January 2025, average monthly proposed fines by PHMSA were $475,389. Since President Donald Trump took office, that monthly average dropped to $8,147 – a 98% decline.”I really think you have to have effective, strong enforcement in order to have safe pipelines and prevent these kinds of tragedies, and a 98% drop-off in civil penalties proposed on operators is not strong enforcement,” Caram said.In a statement, a PHMSA spokesperson said the agency “has maintained a rigid pipeline safety enforcement program focused on protecting people and communities.”The spokesperson called the safety trust analysis “misleading and inaccurate.”Action News Investigates asked PHMSA to explain any inaccuracies. The agency did not respond.Ivy Lane residents were disturbed to learn of the reduction in enforcement.“Everybody’s got go bags here just in case it happens again. Is that a way to live?” said resident Rodney Watson.Records show Energy Transfer and its CEO gave President Trump’s campaign committee $25 million this year. That’s the PAC’s largest donation — five times what billionaire Elon Musk gave.Earlier this year, a subsidiary of Energy Transfer sued the federal government, seeking to block PHMSA from doing in-house enforcement. Court records show the company and the government are now in settlement talks. PHMSA declined to comment on the pending litigation.The possibility of even less enforcement worries Goblick, whose house is just 300 feet from a pipeline.“It’s scary,” she said.Watson said, “We don’t care about the political issues. We care about our safety, and I don’t believe we’re getting it.”MORE FROM ACTION NEWS INVESTIGATES: