PHMSA Seeks Industry Input to Streamline Regulations
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The Department of Transportation’s is asking stakeholders to assess ways to streamline the agency’s existing regulations, including how to reduce undue burdens on the energy sector and ideas that will complement the president’s plan for “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry.”
The agency’s regulatory review is among the latest in a series of priority actions being taken to implement President Donald Trump’s “Unleashing Prosperity through Deregulation” executive orders. The rulemakings by PHMSA could lead to a savings of hundreds of millions of dollars in regulatory costs, according to acting Administrator .
“Regulations should be fit-for-purpose and produce safety benefits that justify the cost of compliance,” Kochman said in a statement announcing two advance notices of proposed rulemakings. “Engaging stakeholders in a comprehensive review will help us identify opportunities to update our regulations, unleash American energy and produce enhanced safety outcomes.”
PHMSA is accepting public comments on the two proposals, pipeline safety and hazardous materials safety through Aug. 4.
PHMSA said Executive Order 14154, “Unleashing American Energy,” mandates that “the heads of all agencies shall review all existing regulations to identify those agency actions that impose an undue burden on the identification, development or use of domestic energy resources.”
. is restoring fairness, transparency, and due process to pipeline safety enforcement.
Under and ’s leadership, we’re refocusing on safety, our number one priority! 🇺🇸
📄 Read more below — U.S. Department of Transportation (@USDOT)
Executive Order 14241 states, “It is a national priority to support the domestic coal industry by removing federal regulatory barriers that undermine coal production.” It also mandates that the transportation secretary “shall identify any guidance, regulations, programs and policies within their respective executive department or agency that seek to transition the nation away from coal production and electricity generation.”
“As part of this effort, PHMSA is seeking stakeholder feedback regarding opportunities to identify widely used hazardous material special permits with established safety records for conversion into deregulatory provisions with broader applicability,” the ANPRM said.
“PHMSA is also seeking stakeholder feedback regarding opportunities to introduce efficiencies to its petitions process,” the posting said. “Finally, PHMSA also solicits stakeholder feedback on whether to amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations to require PHMSA to conduct periodic, mandatory regulatory reviews.”
HMR Also Govern
• Transportation of critical minerals
• Explosives used in energy production activity
• Chemicals used in refinery processes
• Waste products from energy exploration and production activity
• Other materials integral to the identification, development, extraction and use of domestic energy resources
“Ensuring compliance with the HMR is the responsibility of a wide range of entities, from online internet retailers to railroads, commercial trucking companies, and large oil and gas companies,” PHMSA said.
The HMR impose incident-reporting obligations, and the Hazardous Materials Program procedures impose a registration and fee requirement on offerers and carriers of hazardous materials. Each of the entities subject to the HMR must invest scarce resources in satisfying some combination of PHMSA registration, reporting, qualification, packaging, labeling, documentation, testing, security and emergency response planning requirements, PHMSA said.
PHMSA is accepting public comments from industry stakeholders on pipeline safety as part of its regulatory review. (imaginima/Getty Images)
PHMSA’s HMR play an essential role in the energy supply chain by ensuring the safe, reliable and affordable transportation of energy products to millions of Americans. Annually, more than 3.3 billion tons of hazardous materials are shipped by rail, vessel, highway and air that include a wide range of energy commodities, such as more than 88 million barrels of crude oil, 3 million shipments of radioactive materials (including nuclear fuel and waste products) and more than 230 million barrels of ethanol shipped by rail as well as other biofuels.
The HMR also govern transportation of critical minerals, explosives used in energy production activity, chemicals used in refinery processes, waste products from energy exploration and production activity, and other materials integral to the identification, development, extraction and use of domestic energy resources.
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