Review - HR 7011 Introduced – Railcar PRD Report

Back in January Rep Deluzio (D,PA) introduced HR 7011, the Under Pressure Act. The bill would require DOT’s Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) to prepare a report to Congress on the rate and causes of rail tank car pressure relief device (PRD) failures in derailment events. No new funding is authorized by this legislation. 

I can find no legislation in the 118th Congress that would be similar to HR 7011. It would appear that this bill is related to the NTSB preliminary report about issues with pressure release devices during the February 2023 East Palestine train derailment. 

Moving Forward  

Deluzio is a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill is assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see the bill considered by the Committee. Since this is simply a report to Congress bill, I see nothing that would engender any organized opposition. I would suspect that there would be some level of bipartisan support for the bill, but it remains to be seen if there would be sufficient support for the bill to move to the floor of the House for consideration under the suspension of the rules process. 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, and a brief commentary on the current PRD regulatory requirements, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-7011-introduced-railcar-prd-report - subscription required. 

Bills Introduced – 04-30-15 Senate

There were 51 bills introduced in the Senate yesterday. Because of the late adjournment of the House this morning (1:48 am EDT) the bills introduced yesterday in the House are not yet available on www.Congress.gov. Of the bills introduced in the Senate two may be of specific interest to readers of this blog:

S 1158 A bill to ensure the privacy and security of sensitive personal information, to prevent and mitigate identity theft, to provide notice of security breaches involving sensitive personal information... Sen. Leahy, Patrick J. [D-VT]

S 1175 A bill to improve the safety of hazardous materials rail transportation, and for other purposes. Sen. Wyden, Ron [D-OR]

S 1158 is another breach notification bill and likely does not contain language pertinent to industrial control systems. If that is the case there will be no further mention of the bill in this blog.

S 1175 is probably another bill dealing with the crude oil train situation with low likelihood of being considered in the Senate.

NOTE: There is a US-Canadian DOT press conference scheduled for 9:30 am EDT concerning the design of new flammable liquid railcars and potentially some other crude oil train changes. It has not been billed as a release of the HHFT final rule, though some portions of the HHFT are expected to be discussed.

DOT Tank Car Final Rule to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received a copy of DOT’s final rule on Enhanced Tank Car Standards and Operational Controls for High-Hazard Flammable Trains from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA).

The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for this rule was published just a little over six months ago. With the large number of comments (over 3,000) received on that NPRM it is remarkable that PHMSA was able to get a final rule to OMB in just over six months. It is, frankly, a measure of the political pressure the Administration is under to ‘get something done’ on this issue.

Because of the complexity of the issues involved and the amount of political pressure on both sides of the issue, there is no telling how long it will take OMB to clear this final rule for publication. In the little over two months that OIRA considered the NPRM it held 19 reported meetings with interested parties. I expect that a similar number will be held during the consideration of this final rule.

OMB Approves PHMSA Rail Safety ANPRM

Yesterday the Office of Management and Budget announced that it had approved, consistent with change, the advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) on hazmat rail safety from the Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration that I had briefly discussed in a previous blog.

The Unified Agenda describes this proposed rulemaking this way:

“PHMSA is considering amendments that would enhance safety and revise and clarify the HMR applicable to the transportation of hazardous materials by rail. This action responds to petitions for rulemaking submitted by the regulated community and NTSB recommendations that are associated with the petitions.”

The rulemaking looks like it will include:

•Identifying elements of non-conformity that do not require a movement approval from the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA);

•Correcting an unsafe condition associated with pressure relief valves (PRV) on rail cars transporting carbon dioxide, refrigerated liquid;

•Revising outdated regulations applicable to the repair and maintenance of DOT Specification 110, DOT Specification 106, and ICC 27 tank car tanks (ton tanks);

•Excepting ruptured discs from removal if the inspection itself damages, changes, or alters the intended operation of the device; and

•Enhancing the standards for DOT Specification 111 tank cars used to transport Packing Group I and II hazardous materials.

It looks like PHMSA is on track for issuing this ANPRM (HM-251) in September as outlined in the Unified Agenda. Depending on how extensive the OMB directed changes were, I think that we can expect to see this ANPRM in a couple of weeks.

BTW: This might end up being a good regulatory vehicle for addressing the safety issues associated with the Canadian crude oil incident.

FRA Direct Final Rule Increases Fines

Today the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) published a final rule in the Federal Register (78 FR 9845-9848) that is “adjusting both the ordinary maximum penalty and the aggravated maximum penalty that applies when assessing a civil monetary penalty for a violation of the Federal hazardous materials transportation laws or a regulation,  special permit, or approval issued under those laws” (78 FR 9845). This is being done in accordance with the provisions of Title III of Division C of MAP-21 (Pub. L. 112-141)—the Hazardous Materials Transportation Safety Improvement Act of 2012.

The following changes are being made:

• The maximum civil penalty was increased from $50,000 to $75,000 for a knowing violation;

• The maximum civil penalty was increased from $100,000 to $175,000 if the violation results in death, serious illness or severe injury to any person, or substantial destruction of property; and

• The minimum civil penalty of $250 was eliminated, except that a minimum civil penalty of $450 still applies to a violation related to training.

Since the law changing these amounts became effective on October 12, 2012 these changes in fines are effective for all offenses that occur on or after that date. The effective date of this rule is today.

The FRA is proceeding direct to a final rule since they have no latitude in making these changes. This means that a public comment and reply process would have no possible effect on changing the rule. Only Congress can modify this requirement.