Department of Transportation September 7, 2016 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Transit Administration (FTA) announces the selection of projects with Fiscal Year (FY) 2016 appropriations for the Low or No Emission Grant Program (Low-No Program), as authorized by the Fixing America's Surface Transportation Act (FAST) Act. The FAST Act authorized $55 million for competitive allocations in FY 2016. On March 29, 2016, FTA published a Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) (81 FR 17553) announcing the availability of Federal funding for the Low-No Program. These program funds will provide financial assistance to states and eligible public agencies for the purchase or lease of low or no emission vehicles that use advanced technologies and for related equipment or facilities use for transit revenue operations.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is issuing this notice to advise the public that it has published a Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact/Record of Decision for the Southern California Metroplex project.

In compliance with the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995 (44 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.) (PRA), the Department of Transportation (DOT) provides notice that it will submit an information collection request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for emergency approval of a proposed information collection. Upon receiving the requested six-month emergency approval by OMB, the Bureau of Transportation Statistics (BTS), Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology (OST-R), U.S. Department of Transportation will follow the normal PRA procedures to obtain extended approval for this proposed information collection. This collection involves information on barrier failure reporting in oil and gas operations on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS), as referenced in recently issued Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), U.S. Department of the Interior regulations at 30 CFR 250.730(c) (81 FR 25887, Apr. 29, 2016) and the BSEE final rule amending and updating oil and gas production safety system (30 CFR 250.803) to be published in the Federal Register on September 7, 2016. BTS and BSEE have entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to develop an industry-wide repository of barrier failure data, analyze and aggregate information collected under this program, and publish reports that will provide BSEE, the industry, and all OCS stakeholders with essential information about failure types and modes of critical safety barriers for offshore operations. BTS and BSEE have determined that it is in the public interest to collect and process barrier failure reports or other data deemed necessary to administer BSEE's safety program pertaining to barrier failures, under a pledge of confidentiality for statistical purposes only. The confidentiality of notices and reports submitted directly to BTS will be protected in accordance with the Confidential Information Protection and Statistical Efficiency Act of 2002 (CIPSEA) (44 U.S.C. 3501 note), which provides substantial additional confidentiality protections than can be provided for reports submitted directly to BSEE. Currently, reports on equipment failures are submitted directly to BSEE with limited information related to barrier failure events and root cause. Feedback from the industry during the data collection form drafting process indicates substantial reluctance to provide detailed barrier failure event information without the additional protections of CIPSEA. Reports submitted directly to BTS under CIPSEA will use a longer data collection form that includes additional essential detail about a barrier failure event such as equipment history information, certain important event data information, and root cause information. The additional detail included in the longer form is critical to comprehensively assess failures and determine appropriate exposure denominators for risk estimates, in service of BSEE's mission to protect safety and prevent environmental harm. Emergency processing of this collection of information is needed prior to the expiration of time periods established under the PRA because the use of normal clearance procedures is reasonably likely to result in the collection of only limited data on barrier failure events during the established PRA time periods. The use of normal clearance procedures will prevent collection of this data during the established PRA time periods, which will inhibit BSEE's ability to comprehensively assess barrier failures and risks, identify barrier failure trends, and identify causes of critical safety barrier failure events.

The Surface Transportation Board (Board) is seeking comments and suggestions through this Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR) regarding the Board's effort to develop a new rate reasonableness methodology for use in very small disputes, which would be available to shippers of all commodities.

The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) proposes to amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to maintain consistency with international regulations and standards by incorporating various amendments, including changes to proper shipping names, hazard classes, packing groups, special provisions, packaging authorizations, air transport quantity limitations, and vessel stowage requirements. These revisions are necessary to harmonize the HMR with recent changes made to the International Maritime Dangerous Goods Code, the International Civil Aviation Organization's Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air, and the United Nations Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous GoodsModel Regulations. Additionally, PHMSA proposes several amendments to the HMR that result from coordination with Canada under the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council.