PHMSA has established the criteria and competitive procedures that will be used in awarding grants under the Technical Assistance Grants (TAG) program authorized in 49 U.S.C. 60130 and section 2(e) of the Pipeline Inspection, Protection, Enforcement, and Safety Act of 2006. Subject to future appropriations, the TAG program will provide grants of up to $50,000 each to local governments and community groups for engineering and other technical assistance related to pipeline safety matters.

PHMSA has also announced their plans for awarding the three demonstration grants authorized under the TAG program. These demonstration grants (not exceeding $25,000 each) are expected to assist pilot communities with testing draft recommended practices currently being developed by the Pipelines and Informed Planning Alliance (PIPA) task teams. PHMSA, in consultation with the PIPA Steering Committee, will select the three pilot communities based on the Applicant's interest in pilot testing draft PIPA best practices. Each demonstration grant recipient will be required to provide a report to PHMSA demonstrating completion of the work as outlined in the grant agreement. Further, each recipient of a grant under section 5 must ensure that:

• The technical findings made possible by the grants are made available to the relevant operators; and
• Open communication is maintained between the grant recipients, local operators, local communities and other interested parties.

PHMSA and the PIPA Steering Committee have identified several potential projects and topics they may ask communities to investigate, including: Performing an annual review with pipeline operators having facilities within the community; mapping pipelines, abandoned pipelines and Consultation Zones in a geographic information system (GIS); drafting a model ordinance and reviewing one or more of the proposed PIPA best practices for legal issues associated with incorporating the best practices into law; developing educational material for local governments to distribute to developers, landowners and operators about Consultation Zones; or performing Consultation Zone discussions for several developments now being planned that are in close proximity to a transmission pipeline.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Steven Fischer by e-mail at steve.fischer@dot.gov.