49 U.S.C. § 60101 — Definitions

(a) General. This chapter uses these definitions:

(1) "Existing liquefied natural gas facility" means an LNG facility whose site, construction, or operation was applied for before March 1, 1978, with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (or its predecessor) or the right state or local authority — but not one where construction started after November 29, 1979 without that approval.

(2) "Gas" means natural gas, flammable gas, or toxic or corrosive gas.

(3) "Gas pipeline facility" includes a pipeline, right of way, facility, building, or equipment used to transport or treat gas while it is being moved.

(4) "Hazardous liquid" means petroleum or a petroleum product; nonpetroleum fuel (including biofuel) that is flammable, toxic, corrosive, or environmentally harmful if released in large amounts; or any substance the Secretary of Transportation decides could pose an unreasonable risk to life or property if moved in liquid form by a hazardous-liquid pipeline (except LNG).

(5) "Hazardous liquid pipeline facility" includes a pipeline, right of way, facility, building, or equipment used or meant to be used to transport hazardous liquid.

(6) "Interstate gas pipeline facility" means a gas pipeline facility used to transport gas that falls under the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's jurisdiction under the Natural Gas Act.

(7) "Interstate hazardous liquid pipeline facility" means a hazardous-liquid pipeline facility used to move hazardous liquid across state or national lines.

(8) "Interstate or foreign commerce" means, for gas, commerce between a state and somewhere outside it, or commerce affecting that; for hazardous liquid, commerce between a state and outside it, or between places in the same state that pass through another state.

(9) "Intrastate gas pipeline facility" means a gas pipeline facility, and the gas transport within a state, that is not under Commission jurisdiction.

(10) "Intrastate hazardous liquid pipeline facility" means a hazardous-liquid pipeline facility that is not interstate.

(11) "Liquefied natural gas" means natural gas in a liquid or semisolid state.

(12) "Liquefied natural gas accident" means any release, fire, or explosion of LNG, except one that regulations say poses no threat to public health, safety, property, or the environment.

(13) "Liquefied natural gas conversion" means turning natural gas into LNG, or LNG back into natural gas.

(14) "Liquefied natural gas pipeline facility" means a gas pipeline facility used to transport or store LNG, or to convert it, in interstate or foreign commerce — but not any part of a structure or equipment sitting in navigable waters.

(15) "Municipality" means a political subdivision of a state.

(16) "New liquefied natural gas pipeline facility" means any LNG pipeline facility that is not an existing one.

(17) "Person" has the meaning in section 1 of title 1 (except as to societies), and also includes a state, a municipality, and a trustee, receiver, assignee, or personal representative.

(18) "Pipeline facility" means a gas pipeline facility and a hazardous-liquid pipeline facility together.

(19) "Pipeline transportation" means transporting gas and transporting hazardous liquid.

(20) "State" means a U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

(21) "Transporting gas" means gathering, transmission, or distribution of gas by pipeline, or storing gas, in interstate or foreign commerce, plus movement through regulated gathering lines — but not gathering gas (other than through regulated gathering lines) in a rural area outside a populated area designated by the Secretary as a nonrural area.

(22) "Transporting hazardous liquid" means moving hazardous liquid by pipeline, or storing it incidental to that movement, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, plus movement through regulated gathering lines — but not moving it through unregulated gathering lines in a rural area, or through onshore production, refining, or manufacturing facilities and their storage or in-plant piping.

(23) "Risk management" means an owner or operator systematically using management policies, procedures, resources, and practices to identify, analyze, assess, reduce, and control risk, to protect employees, the public, the environment, and pipeline facilities.

(24) "Risk management plan" means a management plan that a gas or hazardous-liquid pipeline owner or operator uses to carry out risk management.

(25) "Secretary" means the Secretary of Transportation.

(26) "Underground natural gas storage facility" means a gas pipeline facility that stores natural gas underground, including a depleted hydrocarbon reservoir, an aquifer reservoir, or a solution-mined salt cavern reservoir.

(b) Gathering Lines. (1)(A) By October 24, 1994, the Secretary had to issue standards defining "gathering line." (B) In defining it for gas, the Secretary had to consider the lines' functional and operational features, and was not bound by any classification the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission uses under the Natural Gas Act.

(2)(A) By October 24, 1995, the Secretary had to define "regulated gathering line" where appropriate, considering factors like location, distance from the well, operating pressure, throughput, and what is being transported, to decide which functionally-gathering lines should still be regulated because of their specific physical features. (B) For hazardous liquid, the Secretary also had to consider pipe diameter — and the definition cannot include a rural crude-oil gathering line that is 6 inches or less in diameter, runs at low pressure, and sits in an area not unusually sensitive to environmental damage.