CO2 pipeline safety rules are unfinished 5 years after Satartia rupture

On February 22, 2020, a Denbury Enterprises CO2 pipeline ruptured near Satartia, Mississippi, releasing a dense cloud of carbon dioxide that hospitalized 45 people and forced 200+ evacuations. Cars stalled because CO2 displaced oxygen from engine intakes, crippling emergency response. Five years later, CO2 pipeline safety regulations remain inadequate. PHMSA proposed new rules in 2024 -- covering odorant requirements, emergency response plans, and rupture detection -- but in March 2025 the Trump administration withdrew the rulemaking. This matters because the U.S. needs to build 30,000-65,000 miles of new CO2 pipelines to meet net-zero targets (vs. ~5,000 miles today), and communities along proposed routes are blocking permits citing Satartia. The Navigator Heartland Greenway pipeline (2,000+ km) was cancelled after landowner opposition. Without updated safety standards, every proposed CO2 pipeline faces years of litigation and public opposition, making the transport infrastructure buildout nearly impossible. The problem persists because CO2 pipelines are regulated under decades-old rules designed for a tiny legacy network, and there is no political constituency pushing hard enough to overcome both industry resistance to costly new standards and community resistance to any pipeline at all.