CSB Urges FERC to Include Hurricanes in Planning Considerations

Yesterday, the Chemical Safety Board disclosed a July 13^th, 2023 letter the Board sent to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) that urged “FERC them to address hurricanes and other high-wind extreme weather events in future updates to the Transmission System Planning Performance Requirements for the nation’s bulk-power system.” They note in the letter that June 15^th, 2023, Transmission System Planning Performance Requirements for Extreme Weather final rule “, does not address extreme weather events beyond heat and cold, such as high winds and hurricanes, although stakeholders had urged FERC to include such events in the rule.”

The letter goes on to explain CSB’s interest in the matter by explicating two investigations that the Board had conducted about releases caused by hurricanes: the 2017 Arkema organic peroxide incident and the 2022 Bio-Labs TCCA incident.

Interestingly, the Board’s letter does not address flooding events from extended, high-intensity rain storms not associated with hurricanes such as the flooding in Vermont last month, of course that event occurred after the letter was sent and no chemical incident investigations resulted from that flooding. But warning of the potential consequences of such floods should not require a deadly incident to occur before the warning is issued.