Kinder Morgan (KMI) Risk Analysis

Our assets and operations are subject to extensive regulation and oversight by federal, state and local regulatory authorities. Legislative changes, as well as regulatory actions taken by these authorities, have the potential to adversely affect our profitability. Additional regulatory burdens and uncertainties will be created if and to the extent that more stringent energy and environmental and pipeline safety policies are enacted. In recent years, we saw an increase in the efforts of regulatory authorities to issue new regulations and guidance and to interpret existing laws and regulations in ways that promoted the use of renewable energy sources and further protection of the environment, called upon companies to increase monitoring and emissions reduction efforts, and increased investigations and enforcement actions for potential violations of environmental laws. For example, in December 2023, the EPA finalized a rule containing standards of performance for methane and volatile organic compound emissions from crude oil and natural gas sources, including the production, processing, and transmission and storage segments. In addition, a certain degree of regulatory uncertainty is created by the recent change in U.S. presidential administrations. It remains unclear specifically what the new administration may do with respect to future policies and regulations that may affect us. These types of rules and others that are currently proposed, if finalized, would affect our assets and operations indirectly, such as by increasing the costs associated with the production of natural gas and liquids that we transport, or directly, such as by increasing significantly our capital and operating costs associated with impacted equipment or subjecting us to the potential for regulatory penalties associated with the inability to comply with the rules in the timeframe allotted. The EPA's final rule known as the "Good Neighbor Plan" (the Plan) was predicated on the EPA's disapproval of numerous state implementation plans, or SIPs, submitted under the interstate transport (Good Neighbor) provisions of the Clean Air Act for the 2015 Ozone NAAQS and became effective on August 4, 2023. The Plan imposes prescriptive emission standards for several sectors, including new and existing reciprocating internal combustion engines of a certain size used in pipeline transportation of natural gas. The Plan's emission standards would require installation of more stringent air pollution controls on hundreds of existing internal combustion engines used by our Natural Gas Pipelines business segment by May 1, 2026, except for any compliance schedule extensions granted by the EPA, which would need to be supported by us and approved by the EPA on an engine-by-engine basis. Multiple legal challenges have been filed, including by states seeking review of SIP disapprovals (12 of which have received stays pending review) and by us. On June 27, 2024, the Supreme Court granted a temporary stay of the Plan until a disposition of a review of the Plan by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and any appeal of that decision to the Supreme Court. See Note 17, "Litigation and Environmental-Environmental Matters-Challenge to Federal "Good Neighbor Plan," to our consolidated financial statements. On February 6, 2025, the EPA filed a motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to hold the cases in abeyance for 60 days to allow the Trump Administration time to familiarize themselves with the Plan, receive briefing from the EPA about the cases and the Plan, and decide what action on the Plan, if any, is necessary. If the Plan were to remain in effect in its current form (including full compliance by a revised compliance deadline accounting for the stays, and assuming failure of all pending challenges to SIP disapprovals and no successful challenge to the Plan), we currently estimate that the Plan would have a material adverse impact on us. See Item 7. "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Liquidity and Capital Resources-Capital Expenditures-Impact of Regulation." We are unable to predict whether pending legal challenges will ultimately result in changes to the Plan or how those changes, if any, would impact us. These and other initiatives of regulatory authorities may affect our assets and operations directly or indirectly, such as by preventing or delaying the exploration for and production of natural gas and liquids that we transport or expanding regulation of existing infrastructure or new sources that are not currently regulated. Regulation affects almost every part of our business. In addition to environmental and pipeline safety matters, we are subject to regulations extending to such matters as (i) federal, state, local and foreign taxation; (ii) rates (which include reservation, commodity, surcharges, fuel and gas lost and unaccounted for), operating terms and conditions of service; (iii) the types of services we may offer to our customers; (iv) the contracts for service entered into with our customers; (v) the certification and construction of new facilities; (vi) the costs of raw materials, such as steel, which may be affected by tariffs (such as those proposed by the new U.S. presidential administration) or otherwise; (vii) the integrity, safety and security (including against cyber-attacks) of facilities and operations; (viii) the acquisition of other businesses; (ix) the acquisition, extension, disposition or abandonment of services or facilities; (x) reporting and information posting requirements; (xi) the maintenance of accounts and records; and (xii) relationships with affiliated companies involved in various aspects of the natural gas and energy businesses. If we fail to comply with any applicable statutes, rules, regulations, and orders of such regulatory authorities, we could be subject to substantial penalties and fines and potential loss of government contracts. New laws or regulations, or different interpretations of existing laws or regulations, including unexpected policy changes, applicable to our income, operations, assets or another aspect of our business could have a material adverse impact on our earnings, cash flow, financial condition and results of operations. For more information, see Items 1 and 2. "Business and Properties-Narrative Description of Business-Industry Regulation."

We are subject to extensive laws and regulations related to pipeline safety and integrity at the federal and state levels. There are, for example, regulations issued by PHMSA for pipeline operators in the areas of design, operations, maintenance, integrity management, qualification and training, emergency response, control room management, and public awareness. We expect the costs of compliance with these regulations, including integrity management rules, will continue to be substantial. The majority of compliance costs relate to pipeline integrity management regulations, which include enhanced assessment and repair requirements in HCAs, and compliance with recently issued regulations which impose additional assessment and repair criteria for gas pipelines in MCAs. Technological advances in in-line inspection tools, identification of additional threats to a pipeline's integrity and changes to the amount of pipeline determined to be located in HCAs or MCAs can have a significant impact on integrity testing and repair costs. Repairs or upgrades deemed necessary to address results of integrity assessments and other testing and/or ensure the continued safe and reliable operation of our pipelines and pipeline facilities could cause us to incur significant and unanticipated capital and operating expenditures. Such expenditures will vary depending on the number of repairs determined to be necessary as a result of integrity assessments and other testing. We also anticipate incurring substantial costs associated with PHMSA's requirements for reconfirming the MAOP of certain gas pipelines. Further, additional laws and regulations that may be enacted in the future or a new interpretation of existing laws and regulations could significantly increase our compliance expenditures. Pipeline safety regulations or changes to such regulations may require additional leak detection, reporting, the replacement of certain pipeline segments or equipment, addition of monitoring equipment and more frequent monitoring, inspection or testing of our pipeline facilities. Repair, remediation, and preventative or mitigating actions may require significant capital and operating expenditures. Pipeline safety regulation has increased over time, including recent revised gas and hazardous liquid regulations that we must timely implement, and existing obligations may increase with new proposed rules that are currently under consideration. For example, PHMSA has issued a proposed rulemaking with expansive pipeline leak detection and repair requirements that is proposed to be applicable to gas pipelines, LNG facilities and underground natural gas storage facilities. PHMSA is also working on a final rulemaking regarding requirements for pipelines located in coastal ecological unusually sensitive areas, as well as a final rule that updates requirements for responding to changes in class location for gas pipelines. In addition, PHMSA is working on a number of proposed rulemakings, including those related to (i) updating regulations for LNG facilities; (ii) requirements for idled gas and liquid pipelines; (iii) revising requirements for transportation of CO2 in the liquid phase as well as establishing regulation of the transportation of gaseous CO2; (iv) oil spill response plans; and (v) liquid pipeline repair criteria. Congress is working on the reauthorization of the Pipeline Safety Act, which is expected to be enacted in 2025 and could further expand PHMSA's current rulemaking agenda and/or statutory authority in certain areas. There can be no assurance as to the amount or timing of future expenditures for pipeline safety and integrity regulation, and actual future expenditures may be different from the amounts we currently anticipate. Revised or additional regulations that result in increased compliance costs or additional operating restrictions, particularly if those costs are not deemed by regulators to be fully recoverable from our customers, could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial position, results of operations and prospects.

We gather, process or transport crude oil, natural gas or NGL from several areas, including lands that are federally managed. Policy and regulatory initiatives or legislation by Congress may decrease access to federally managed lands or increase the regulatory burdens associated with using these lands to produce crude oil or natural gas, or both. From 2021 to 2024, the federal government deprioritized onshore leasing and its review of applications for permits to drill. Third-party interest groups and members of the oil and gas industry have initiated litigation challenging decisions to approve or prohibit oil and gas activities on federally managed lands. In addition, oil and gas development and production activities are subject to increasing regulation at the federal, state and local levels. For example, there have been initiatives at the federal and state levels to regulate or otherwise restrict the use of certain hydraulic fracturing activities, and many states are promulgating stricter requirements related not only to well development but also to compressor stations and other facilities in the oil and gas industry. These activities are subject to laws and regulations regarding the acquisition of permits before drilling, restrictions on drilling activities and location, emissions into the environment, water discharges, transportation of hazardous materials, and storage and disposition of wastes. In addition, legislation has been enacted that requires well and facility sites to be abandoned and reclaimed to the satisfaction of state authorities. Adoption of legislation or regulations restricting these activities in our areas of operations could impose operational delays, increased operating costs and additional regulatory burdens on exploration and production operators, which could reduce their production of crude oil, natural gas or NGL and, in turn, adversely affect our revenues, cash flows and results of operations by decreasing the volumes of these commodities that we handle. These laws and regulations may also adversely affect our own oil and gas development and production activities.