Director - Pipeline Safety
Rickey Cotton is Director - Pipeline Safety at the Mississippi Public Service Commission.
The PUF team received a warm welcome in the Magnolia State as we had made our way to Jackson. The Mississippi Public Service Commission is housed near the state Capitol in the beautiful art deco E.T. Woolfolk state office building. PSC Staff is separate by law from the Public Utilities Staff, as evidenced by the physical division in the Woolfolk building with each on their own floor. Listen in and learn about this wonderful PSC.
PUF: Talk about your background and how you became the pipeline safety division director.
Rickey Cotton: When I came into pipeline safety, I had no pipeline safety experience because I came right out of college. I started out as a pipeline safety investigator. After about eight years of training and on-the-job experience, I had an opportunity to be promoted to the director of pipeline safety.
I served in that capacity for about seven or eight years, then left and went to private industry.
After eleven years, the director here retired and I came back as the pipeline safety director, so I've been back five years now.
PUF: What do pipeline safety investigators look for?
Rickey Cotton: Pipeline safety investigators look for compliance with Code of Federal Regulations part 192, and make sure that the natural gas operators are in compliance with those regulations.