Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration June 2021 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

PHMSA is issuing this advisory bulletin to remind each owner and operator of a pipeline facility that the ``Protecting our Infrastructure of Pipelines and Enhancing Safety Act of 2020'' (PIPES Act of 2020) contains a self-executing mandate requiring operators to update their inspection and maintenance plans to address eliminating hazardous leaks and minimizing releases of natural gas (including intentional venting during normal operations) from their pipeline facilities. Operators must also revise their plans to address the replacement or remediation of pipeline facilities that are known to leak based on their material, design, or past operating and maintenance history. The statute requires pipeline operators to complete these updates by December 27, 2021.

In accordance with the procedures governing the application for, and the processing of, special permits from the Department of Transportation's Hazardous Material Regulations, notice is hereby given that the Office of Hazardous Materials Safety has received the application described herein.

This proceeding was initiated in February 1998, when the National Tank Truck Carriers, Inc. (NTTC) applied to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration \1\ (PHMSA) for a determination that the HMTA preempted certain marking and record keeping requirements of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC). PHMSA found that the HMTA preempted the NYSDEC requirements because the requirements were not substantively the same as requirements in the HMR on the marking, maintaining, repairing, or testing of a package or container that is represented, marked, certified, or sold as qualified for transporting hazardous material. NYSDEC's petition for reconsideration of that decision is dismissed on the grounds of mootness. NYSDEC has made significant revisions to its regulations, and the revised rules do not appear to impose the same requirements on regulated entities as the previous version of the rules that were challenged in this proceeding. It therefore does not appear that reconsidering PHMSA's preemption determination regarding the now- superseded NYSDEC rules would have any practical effect.

In accordance with the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, DOT published a final rule on May 3, 2021 to provide the 2021 inflation adjustment to civil penalty amounts that may be imposed for violations of certain DOT regulations. This rule corrects an error in that rulemaking resulting from an inaccurate amendatory instruction. The rule does not change any civil penalty amounts established in the final rule published on May 3, 2021.