OSHA Extends EO 13650 PSM Comment Period

Today the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) published a notice in the Federal Register (79 FR 13006) extending the comment period on their PSM advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) until March 31^st, 2014.

Today’s announcement notes that there are two different comment solicitations out that are closely related in that they were both submitted in response to different requirements in the Presidents Executive Order on Improving Chemical Facility Safety and Security (EO 13650). This OSHA PSM ANPRM was published shortly before a related request for information (RFI) was published by the EO 13650 Working Group. Since the two requests for input are so closely related (actually the PSM ANPRM is a sub-set of the more general RFI) OSHA is extending the current ANPRM comment deadline to be the same as that for the RFI.

Public comments on both processes can be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov). PSM comments should be submitted to docket OSHA-2013-0020. The EO 13650 RFI comments should be submitted to docket OSHA-2013-0026.

Of course, the fact that until yesterday there had only been five comments submitted on the PSM ANPRM had no bearing on this extension.