Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA) announced
that it had received from DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration
(PHMSA) their Notice of the Department of Transportation's Decision on ECP
Braking for review.
While this was not published in the 2017 Unified Agenda
update, it appears that this has been prepared in response to a congressional
mandate in 2015 FAST Act (PL 114-94).
In §7311 Congress
addressed the PHMSA
rule {174.310(a)(3)(ii)}
on the use of electronically controlled pneumatic (ECP) breaks on highly-hazardous
flammable trains (HHFT); requiring additional testing of the efficacy of ECP
breaking systems in preventing damage to railcars used to transport crude oil.
While the National Academy of Sciences final letter report was not able
to make a conclusive statement “concerning the emergency performance of ECP breaks
relative to other breaking systems” (pg ii), congress mandated {§7311(c)(2)} that by
December 4th of this year DOT would either publish a notice of why
the ECP mandate was justified or, if not justified, repeal the requirement.
It will be interesting to see how the anti-regulatory Trump
administration comes down on this decision.
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