PHMSA Sends Fuel Transportation Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a final rule from the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on “Eliminating Unnecessary Burdens On Fuel Transportation”. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this action was published on October 28^th, 2024.

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:

“PHMSA is adopting several amendments to the Hazardous Materials Regulations to reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens associated with the safe transportation of hazardous materials, including energy products, in commerce. These amendments will reduce costs on hazardous materials transporters and eliminate unnecessary regulatory burdens on fuel transportation while maintaining or increasing the level of safety provided in the Hazardous Materials Regulations.”

This certainly sounds like the rulemaking is in response to the deregulatory demands of  EO 14154, Unleashing American Energy. An alert reader will have noticed, however, that the NPRM for this rulemaking was published under the Biden Administration under the title of “Hazardous Materials: Advancing Safety of Highway, Rail, and Vessel Transportation”. To be fair, the rulemaking was initiated under the 45 Administration as the “Hazardous Materials: Modal Regulatory Reform Initiatives”.

While the 47 Administration has exhibited a tendency to broadly interpret the rulemaking requirements, they would probably avoid trying to add significant new deregulatory actions in the final rule that were not included in the NPRM to avoid lawsuits that could tie up their over worked and understaffed DOJ in difficult to win court cases.