Review - PHMSA in the Federal Register – 8-4-26

Yesterday, DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published 16 final rules in the Federal Register, all dealing with hazardous materials safety regulations. Notices of proposed rulemakings for each of these 16 rulemakings were published on July 1st, 2025. 

The 16 final rules are:  

• Hazardous Materials: Reducing Burdens on Domestic Companies Using Battery-Powered Equipment in Trades  
• Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Department of Transportation Special Permit 21478  
• Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Department of Transportation Special Permit 14175  
• Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Department of Transportation Special Permit 21379  
• Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Department of Transportation Special Permit 21287  
• Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Department of Transportation Special Permits 12412 and 11646 Into the Hazardous Materials Regulations  
• Hazardous Materials: Removing Burdensome Rail Reporting Requirements  
• Hazardous Materials: Reduce Training Burdens for America's Farmers  
• Hazardous Materials: Reducing Recordkeeping Requirements for Domestic Carriers  
• Hazardous Materials: Modernizing Payments To and From America's Bank Account  
• Hazardous Materials: Improving Efficiencies for Special Permits and Approvals Renewals  
• Hazardous Materials: Reducing Burdens by Allowing Continued Use of Department of Transportation Special Permit Packagings  
• Hazardous Materials: Remove Redundant List of U.S. EPA CERCLA Hazardous Substances  
• Hazardous Materials: Reducing Undue Paperwork Burdens to Domestic Carriers  
• Hazardous Materials: Reducing Costs to Domestic Shippers and Carriers of Limited Quantities   
• Hazardous Materials: Reducing Burdens on Domestic Aerosol Shippers  

For more information on these rulemakings, including a PHMSA summary, as well as a commentary on gaming EO 14192, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/phmsa-in-the-federal-register-8-4 - subscription required. Free CFSN subscribers will receive a copy of that article tomorrow. 

Review - HR 9266 Introduced – Placarding for Refrigerants

Last month, Rep Carter (R,GA) introduced HR 9266, the Chief Chris Eddy’s Law. The bill would direct DOT to require the placarding of all refrigerated containers to communicate to emergency responders the potential of pressurization from such containers. No new funding is authorized by this legislation. 

I can find no legislation in the 118th Congress that would appear to be similar to HR 9266. A press release from Carter’s office notes: 

“In 2024, Georgia’s Greene County Fire Rescue Battalion Chief Chris Eddy, remembered as a “dedicated firefighter, leader, mentor, and loving husband and father,” was killed in the line of duty during an explosion caused by the rapid ignition of refrigerants inside a reefer storage container. Had the container been properly labeled, Eddy’s life could have been saved, as he would have known the dangers before approaching.” 

Moving Forward  

Carter is not a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there is probably not sufficient influence to see the bill considered by the Committee. Because the bill would require placarding requirements before a study established the need for such placarding, I suspect that the Committee would not support the bill were it to be considered. 

For more details about the provisions of this bill and the incident that inspired it, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-9266-introduced-placarding-for - subscription required. 

Review – PHMSA Publishes Space Support Hazmat ANPRM

Today DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) in the Federal Register (91 FR 3860-3862) on “Hazardous Materials: Modernizing Regulations To Facilitate Transportation of Hazardous Materials Integral to Spacecraft Components and Payloads”. PHMSA is soliciting feedback on streamlining and modernizing the Agency's regulations as they relate to the transportation of hazardous materials integral to spacecraft payloads or components. This rulemaking supports the intent of EO 14335, Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry, even though there are no specific mentions of PHMSA or Hazmat regulations in that EO.

Public Comments

PHMSA is soliciting public comments. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket #PHMSA-2024-0065). Comments should be submitted by April 29^th, 2026.

 

For more information on this ANPRM, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/phmsa-publishes-space-support-hazmat - subscription required.

OMB Approves PHMSA Space Related Hazmat Transportation ANPRM

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) from DOT’s Pipeline Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) on “Hazardous Materials: Modernizing Regulations to Facilitate Transportation of Spacecraft and Space Related Hazardous Materials”. This rulemaking was sent to OIRA on December 19^th, 2025.

According to the Spring 2025 Unified Agenda for this rulemaking:

“In this rulemaking, PHMSA would amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to modernize and streamline the HMR, where necessary, to facilitate the transportation of hazardous materials involved in U.S. space operations. PHMSA will aim to identify problems and friction with the current regulatory scheme and potentially reduce burdens on both PHMSA and the regulated community while advancing U.S. interests in the space industry. PHMSA would coordinate closely with its interagency partners (Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, etc.) and its modal partners (Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, and U.S. Coast Guard) to ensure a comprehensive approach that allows for the seamless movement of goods across multiple modes of transport while allowing for the specific needs of each mode to be safely addressed.”

This rulemaking was approved ‘subject to change’, so that may impact on how quickly this ANPRM ill be published in the Federal Register. It may appear there as early as next week.

Review – PHMSA Publishes Fuel Transportation Final Rule

Today DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a final rule in the Federal Register (91 FR 1433) on “Hazardous Materials: Eliminating Unnecessary Regulatory Burdens on Fuel Transportation”. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published on October 28^th, 2024, under the title “Hazardous Materials: Advancing Safety of Highway, Rail, and Vessel Transportation”.

This final rule is somewhat reduced in scope from the proposed change found in the NPRM. The changes that were adopted include:

In part 107, subpart F, revise the cargo tank facility registration requirements to allow for electronic submission procedures.

In section 171.7, replace the current incorporation by reference of Chlorine Institute (CI) drawings in paragraphs (l)(3) and (l)(4) with the entire CI Pamphlet 49,Recommended Practices for Handling Chlorine Bulk Highway Transports, which provides guidelines for the safe transportation of chlorine by highway. The updated incorporation by reference includes the use of the Midland Type pressure relief device (PRD) for cargo tanks transporting chlorine as referenced in updated section 173.315.

In section 172.336, revise the marking requirements for multiple petroleum distillate fuels to allow the marking of the identification number of the fuel with the lowest flash point transported in the same or previous business day.

In section 172.704, include hazmat employees who only manufacture packagings within the scope of the existing exception from safety training. Further, remove the security awareness training requirement for any hazmat employees who only perform hazmat activities related to packagings (e.g., employees who manufacture, repair, modify, recondition, or test packagings, and do not offer for transportation or transport hazardous materials in commerce).

In section 178.337-1(d), allow the use of external coverings other than paint that meet reflectivity requirements for Cargo Tank Motor Vehicles (CTMVs).

In section 180.407(a)(7), allow the use of video cameras or video optics equipment for cargo tank inspections or tests.

Effective Dates

Effective date – February 13^th, 2026,

Voluntary compliance date – January 14^th, 2026, and

Incorporation by reference date – February 13^th, 2026.

 

For more information on the provisions of this rule, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/phmsa-publishes-fuel-transportation - subscription required.

OMB Approves PHMSA Fuel Transportation Final Rule – 12-23-25

On Tuesday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule from DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) on “Eliminating Unnecessary Burdens On Fuel Transportation ”. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) 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”.

The first mention of this rulemaking showed up in the Fall 2018 Unified Agenda:

“This rulemaking amends the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR parts 100-185) to adopt a number of actions that will ease regulatory burdens on modal transportation while continuing to protect our communities from the risks inherent to transporting hazardous materials. These modal-specific (e.g., rail, highway, and vessel) amendments include deregulatory actions identified by internal agency review and public comments on the Department of Transportation regulatory reform and infrastructure notices.”

Biden’s PHMSA slightly modified that description in the Spring 2021 Unified Agenda:

“This rulemaking would amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations to adopt a number of modal specific amendments that would enhance the safe transportation of hazardous materials. PHMSA, in consultation with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, the Federal Railroad Administration, and the United States Coast Guard, proposes amendments identified during Departmental review and from industry petitions for rulemaking.”

The final rule should be published in the Federal Register in early January.

PHMSA Sends Spacecraft HAZMAT ANPRM to OMB

Yesterday the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had received an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking from the DOT’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) on “Hazardous Materials: Modernizing Regulations to Facilitate Transportation of Spacecraft and Space Related Hazardous Materials”.

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

“In this rulemaking, PHMSA would amend the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to modernize and streamline the HMR, where necessary, to facilitate the transportation of hazardous materials involved in U.S. space operations. PHMSA will aim to identify problems and friction with the current regulatory scheme and potentially reduce burdens on both PHMSA and the regulated community while advancing U.S. interests in the space industry. PHMSA would coordinate closely with its interagency partners (Department of Defense, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, etc.) and its modal partners (Federal Aviation Administration, Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, Federal Railroad Administration, and U.S. Coast Guard) to ensure a comprehensive approach that allows for the seamless movement of goods across multiple modes of transport while allowing for the specific needs of each mode to be safely addressed.”

HR 8996 Introduced – Rail Hazmat Safety

Review - Last month, Rep Nehls (R,TX) introduced HR 8996, the Railroad Safety Enhancement Act of 2024. The bill addresses a wide variety of rail safety issues, including high-hazard trains, long-trains, defect detection, safer tank cars, close call reporting and train car telematics. It also addresses Hazmat issues, including registration fees, virtual training and emergency response grants. Many of the proposed actions include funding and grant provisions.

Definitions

Section 101 provides one definition of a key term, ‘Secretary’, used in the bill. The bill also defines seven technical terms in a proposed revision to 49 USC 20155 and adopts the use of those definitions throughout the bill. The one technical term of interest is “high-hazard train”. This term is significantly different than the existing “high-hazard flammable unit train” defined in 49 CFR 171.8, including more types of hazardous materials and smaller blocks of hazmat cars.

Overview

The bill includes the following sections of specific interest here:

Sec. 102. Safety requirements for high-hazard trains.
Sec. 103. Ensuring the safety of long trains.

Sec. 110. Safer tank cars.

Sec. 121. Grant programs for adoption of certain telematics systems.
Sec. 122. Enhancing freight railcar onboard telematics and sensor development pilot program.

Sec. 201. Hazardous materials registration fees.

Sec. 203. Hazardous materials transportation emergency response and preparedness grants.

Moving Forward

Nehls and seven of his 20 cosponsors {Rep Moulton (D,MA), Rep Strong-Sykes (D,OH), Rep Deluzio (D,PA), Rep Van Orden (R,WI), Rep D'Esposito (R,NY), Rep Holmes-Norton (D,DC), Rep Titus (D,NV)}, are member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to which this bill was assigned for consideration. This means that there may be sufficient influence to see this bill considered in Committee. While there is bipartisan sponsorship I suspect that there will be significant industry (and thus Republican) opposition to many of the provisions of this bill. I am not sure that there would be sufficient bipartisan support for the bill to pass in Committee. There would certainly be sufficient opposition to ensure that the bill could not be considered by the Full House under the suspension of the rules process. This late in the session, that effectively kills this bill

Commentary

I think that the telematics provisions of this bill would probably be the most valuable if this bill were sent to the President. I do not think, however, that the bill lists enough specific devices that should be encouraged. I would add to both §121(b)(3) and §122(a)(2) the following devices:

“(E) internal railcar pressure;

“(F) pressure relief valve opening; and

“(G) whether a bottom valve is open; and”

 

For more information on the provisions of this bill, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/hr-8996-introduced - subscription required.

FMCSA Publishes HAZMAT Safety Permit ICR Revision

Today the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) published a 60-day ICR renewal-revision notice in the Federal Register (78 FR 74221-74222) to revise and update the information collection request supporting the HAZMAT Safety Permit program under 49 CFR §385.401 et seq.

This ICR provides for the collection of information by FMCSA as part of the permit application process under 49 CFR §385.405(a). It also covers the requirement under 49 CFR §385.407(b)(2) to maintain records of communications between the carrier and the hazmat transport driver. The driver is required to “make contact with the carrier at the beginning and end of each duty tour, and at the pickup and delivery of each permitted load” {49 CFR §385.415(c)(1)}

ICR Burden Revision

As part of its requirement to periodically renew this ICR, FMCSA is updating the burden requirements for this ICR based upon changes in the number of affected hazmat carriers requesting permits and the number of hazmat loads requiring the maintenance of communications records. The table below shows the change in those numbers over the last two renewal requests.

	2007	2010	2013
Motor Carriers	2515	1425	1382
Hazmat Trips	1.6 Million	4.2 Million	11.6 Million
Annual Burden	131,000	350,000	967,000

FMCSA estimates the annual burden hours by assuming that each driver takes a total of five minutes during each hazmat trip to record his required contacts with the carrier. The earlier data comes from the Federal Register notices (72 FR 39879-39880 and 75 FR 54941-54942) for the respective 60-day ICR notice.

There is no mention of the burden associated with filling out the permit application (Form MCS-150B). While this is a relatively complex form, I don’t suspect that it will take more than an hour to complete the application. This means that the 1382 burden hours for filling out that form will be lost in the rounding of the number calculated for the communications recording requirement.

Public Comments

FMCSA is soliciting public comments on this ICR notice. Comments may be submitted via the Federal eRulemaking Portal (www.Regulations.gov; Docket # FMCSA-2013-0349). Comments will need to be submitted by February 10^th, 2014.

PHMSA Extends Comment Period on Rail Safety ANPRM

The Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) published a notice in today’s Federal Register (78 FR 66326-66327) announcing a 30-day extension of the comment period on their advanced notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) for the Rail Petitions and Recommendations To Improve the Safety of Railroad Tank Car Transportation.

The extension is in response to a petition by the Sierra Club for a 90-day extension of the comment period that included, in part, as justification the 16-day shut-down of the federal government during the recent federal funding fiasco. PHMSA notes that, since this is an ANPRM, it will, to the maximum extent possible, “consider late-filed comments during the next stage of the rulemaking process”.

The comment period would have closed today, but it will now close on December 5^th, 2013.

NOTE: I did a quick check this morning to see how many comments have been received on this docket (PHMSA-2012-0082), but the www.Regulations.gov web site was down.

S 1243 Introduced – FT 2014 DOT Spending

As I mentioned in an earlier post Sen. Murray (D,WA) introduced S 1243, the Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2014. This bill does not actually include any specific chemical safety or cybersecurity (beyond Department IT cybersecurity spending) provisions. The Senate Appropriations Committee report does, however, include hazmat transportation safety provisions and limited cybersecurity provisions.

Cybersecurity

The Report accompanying this bill briefly addresses a unique set of control system security concerns. First the report notes that 77% of the Department’s cybersecurity budget (or $105 million) is directed to the budget of the Federal Aviation Administration. The Report then goes on to note that two separate DOT IG reports indicate “the FAA had not adequately implemented security requirements for its Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast System” (pg 33) or its En Route Automation Modernization System. The report concludes that the Committee “expects the Vice President of [FAA] Program Management to coordinate with the CIO for the FAA and for the Department to ensure the security of FAA’s systems is made a high priority”

PHMSA Spending

The spending bill provides modest increases in funding for PHMSA programs. Both the Pipeline Safety Fund and the HAZMAT show increases over the pre-sequester FY 2013 spending, but the HAZMAT program is slightly less than requested by the President. The President continues to propose a HAZMAT special permit fee in his budget, but “the Committee believes that such a fee should be established through the regulatory process or should be addressed through the authorization process” (pgs 90-1) and does not include that in the bill.

Moving Forward

Because of Constitutional limitations, this bill will probably not be brought up until the House passes their version of the bill at which time the Senate would typically substitute this language for the House wording, pass the bill (probably with a number of amendments) and then go to conference to iron out the differences.

In recent years this bill is usually folded into the Omnibus spending bill because Congress has been unable to pass all 13 of the individual appropriations bills before the end of the fiscal year on September 30^th. I suspect that that will occur this year as well.

NTSB Announces Single-Truck Accident Meeting

Today the National Transportation Safety Board announced in the Federal Register (78 FR 29781) that they would be holding a meeting in Washington, DC on June 4^th to look at the results of a Safety Study on the Characteristics of Single-Unit Truck Accidents Resulting in Injuries and Death.

We have been seeing a large number of news reports about single-truck accidents, many of which involve hazardous materials. A reduction in the number of such accidents would be of immeasurable benefit to shippers, transporters and the general public.

The meeting is open to the public and the NTSB will web cast the meeting (I am so glad to see more and more federal agencies learn the value of webcasting; NPPD PLEASE take note). The link will be available on the www.NTSB.gov website.

FRA ICR for Reporting Alleged Violations Submitted to OMB

Yesterday the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) submitted their information collection request (ICR) to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to allow the FRA to collect information from the public about alleged violations of Federal railroad safety and hazardous materials transportation laws, regulations, and orders. The collection would take place on the FRA web site via an on-line form. The FRA was directed to set up this collection by §307(b) of the Rail Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (P.L.110-432).

I briefly wrote about this ICR back in June when the required 30-day notice was published in the Federal Register (75 FR 34802). Typically the submission to the OMB is made at about the same time as the 30-day notice is published. This is because the public comments (if any) on the 30-day notice were directed to the OMB. According to the ICR submission no public comments were received on either the 30-day notice or the earlier 60-day notice (75 FR 18012).

There is no indication on the OMB site why there was a three-month delay in actually submitting the ICR to OMB. There was no deadline in the authorizing legislation for this particular information collection, so I suppose there is no big rush. After all we are only talking about safety incident reporting here. Nothing really important….