Law underground: The legal geographies of gas transmission pipeline regulation

Abstract

High-pressure gas transmissions pipelines present a risk to the community, especially at the rural/urban boundary, where residential development is occurring close to land above gas pipelines that were constructed decades earlier to a safety standard suitable for surface farm use. Although there is significant private industry knowledge about both pipeline locations and routes, that information is selectively shared with government agencies and personnel. Underground gas pipelines are also overwhelmingly regulated in legal instruments that are controlled and modified through government and industry collaboration that goes unseen by the public. This chapter applies the idea that laws, hazard ..