INVESTING IN AMERICA: New Video Highlights How Biden-Harris Infrastructure Law is Helping Richmond, Virginia – and Dozens of Other Communities – Replace Old Natural Gas Pipes
WASHINGTON – Today, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the fifth installment of its “Investing in America” video series, focused on Richmond, Virginia, and a major infrastructure investment to replace nearly 60 miles of aging, leak-prone cast iron natural gas pipes with modern, safer polyethylene (PE) pipes using funds made available thanks to the Biden-Harris Administration.
The release of the video coincides with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)’s announcement today of nearly $200 million in grants going to 20 states, including $15.7 million to Richmond to expand the project highlighted in the video.
The video features the work the City of Richmond Public Utilities is currently doing to replace over 59 miles of cast iron, ductile iron, and steel natural gas mains and keep Richmonders safe and save households an average of $519 on their energy bills. The project is also expected to reduce methane emissions by more than 188 metric tons each year.
This pipeline grants program, created in the Biden-Harris infrastructure law, provides funding exclusively to municipalities to repair, rehabilitate, or replace natural gas distribution pipeline systems or portions thereof, or to acquire equipment to either reduce incidents and fatalities as well as avoid economic losses. Today’s grant announcement will provide nearly $200 million to 20 states for these efforts.
“Aging, leak-prone natural gas pipes can be dangerous, drive up energy costs for families, and harm the environment, which is why the Biden-Harris Administration is supporting funds to replace aging pipelines,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, we’re helping Richmond and other communities across the country carry out projects that will keep people safe while bringing down energy costs for hundreds of thousands of Americans.”
The Biden-Harris Bipartisan Infrastructure Law made the funding possible to repair or improve these aging or leak-prone systems, especially in underserved communities, and reduce the risks they face from leakage of methane while creating good-paying jobs, promoting economic growth, and lowering energy costs for thousands of families and businesses. Today’s announcement brings the total amount awarded under this program to nearly $800 million across 227 projects in underserved rural and urban communities across 29 states since 2022.
About the Investing in America video series:
The first video in the Investing in America shorts series, released in March, highlighted the Blatnik Bridge, which connects Duluth, Minnesota, and Superior, Wisconsin, and would have to close if not for the federal investments the Biden-Harris Administration is making to repair the bridge. The second video, released in May, showcased Philadelphia’s Chinatown Stitch project, which received $159 million from the Biden-Harris Administration to cap the Vine Street Expressway and address historic inequities. The third video, released in July, focused on the men and women producing American-made steel out of Coatesville, Pennsylvania, and the “Build America, Buy America” provisions of President Biden’s Infrastructure Law. The fourth video, released in August, discusses how the Biden-Harris Administration's infrastructure law is transforming transportation for the disability community.
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