Department of Transportation January 11, 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

PHMSA is amending the Federal Pipeline Safety Regulations to ease regulatory burdens on the construction, maintenance, and operation of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipeline systems without adversely affecting safety. The amendments in this rule are based on rulemaking petitions from stakeholders, and DOT and PHMSA initiatives to identify appropriate areas where regulations might be repealed, replaced, or modified, and PHMSA's review of public comments. PHMSA also, as of the effective date of this final rule, withdraws the March 29, 2019 ``Exercise of Enforcement Discretion Regarding Farm Taps'' and the unpublished October 27, 2015 letter to the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America announcing a stay of enforcement pertaining to certain pressure vessels.

PHMSA is publishing this notice to solicit public comments on a request for special permit received from the Natural Gas Pipeline Company of America, L.L.C. (NGPL). The special permit request is seeking relief from compliance with certain requirements in the Federal pipeline safety regulations. At the conclusion of the 30-day comment period, PHMSA will review the comments received from this notice as part of its evaluation to grant or deny the special permit request.

In accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, this final rule provides the 2020 inflation adjustment to civil penalty amounts that may be imposed for violations of certain DOT regulations. In additional, this final rule makes conforming revisions to Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regulations to reflect inflationary adjustments to the statutorily-mandated civil penalties for violations of Federal law.