Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Miscellaneous Petitions and Updating Regulatory Requirements

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION <SUBAGY>Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration</SUBAGY> <CFR>49 CFR Parts 107, 171, 172, 173, 178, and 180</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. PHMSA-2020-0102 (HM-219D)]</DEPDOC> <RIN>RIN 2137-AF49</RIN> <SUBJECT>Hazardous Materials: Adoption of Miscellaneous Petitions and Updating Regulatory Requirements</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), Department of Transportation (DOT). <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Final rule. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> PHMSA amends the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR) to update, clarify, improve the safety of, or streamline various regulatory requirements. Specifically, this rulemaking responds to 18 petitions for rulemaking submitted by the regulated community between May 2018 and October 2020 that requests PHMSA address a variety of provisions, including but not limited to those addressing packaging, hazard communication, and the incorporation by reference of certain documents. These revisions maintain or enhance the existing high level of safety under the HMR while providing clarity and appropriate regulatory flexibility in the transport of hazardous materials. </SUM> <DATES> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> <E T="03">Effective date:</E> This final rule is effective on April 3, 2024. <E T="03">Delayed compliance date:</E> March 4, 2025. <E T="03">Incorporation by reference date:</E> The incorporation by reference of certain publications listed in this final rule is approved by the Director of the Federal Register as of April 3, 2024. </DATES> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> Steven Andrews, 202-366-8553, Office of Hazardous Materials Standards, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1200 New Jersey Avenue SE, East Building, 2nd Floor, Washington, DC 20590-0001. </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">I. Background</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">II. Incorporation by Reference Discussion Under 1 CFR Part 51</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">III. NPRM: Publication and Public Comments; Executive Order 13924</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">IV. Discussion of Amendments and Applicable Comments</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">V. Section-by-Section Review</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-2">VI. Regulatory Analyses and Notices</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">A. Statutory/Legal Authority for This Rulemaking</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">B. Executive Orders 12866 and 14094, and DOT Regulatory Policies and Procedures</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">C. Executive Order 13132</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">D. Executive Order 13175</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">E. Regulatory Flexibility Act, Executive Order 13272, and DOT Procedures and Policies</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">F. Paperwork Reduction Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">G. Unfunded Mandates Reform Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">H. Environmental Assessment</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">I. Privacy Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">J. Executive Order 13609 and International Trade Analysis</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">K. Executive Order 13211</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">L. National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">M. Cybersecurity and Executive Order 14028</FP> <FP SOURCE="FP1-2">N. Severability</FP> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Background</HD> The Administrative Procedure Act (APA) requires Federal agencies to give interested persons the right to petition an agency to issue, amend, or repeal a rule. ( <E T="03">See</E> 5 U.S.C. 553(e).) PHMSA regulations specify that persons petitioning PHMSA to add, revise, or remove a regulation in the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR parts 171 through 180) must file a petition for rulemaking containing adequate support for the requested action. ( <E T="03">See</E> 49 CFR 106.100.) PHMSA amends the HMR in response to petitions for rulemaking submitted by shippers, carriers, manufacturers, and industry representatives, and welcomes petitions from any interested stakeholder or member of the public with suggested changes to improve the HMR. PHMSA now finds that these revisions will maintain the high safety standard currently achieved under the HMR while providing clarity and appropriate regulatory flexibility in the transport of hazardous materials. PHMSA also notes that—insofar as adoption of the petitions could reduce delays and interruptions of hazardous materials shipments during transportation—the amendments will also lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and safety risks to minority, low-income, underserved, and other disadvantaged populations and communities in the vicinity of interim storage sites and transportation arteries and hubs. A detailed discussion of the petitions and revisions can be found in section III of this final rule. In this final rule, PHMSA revises the HMR to: • Allow for appropriate flexibility of packaging options in the transportation of compressed natural gas in cylinders. • Streamline the approval application process for the repair of certain DOT specification cylinders. • Provide greater clarity on the filling requirements for certain cylinders used to transport hydrogen and hydrogen mixtures. • Facilitate international commerce, and streamline packaging and hazard communication requirements by harmonizing the HMR with international regulations to allow the shipment of de minimis amounts of poisonous materials. • Provide greater clarity by requiring a specific marking on cylinders to indicate compliance with certain HMR provisions. • Streamline hazard communication requirements by allowing appropriate marking exceptions under certain conditions for the transportation of lithium button cell batteries installed in equipment. • Provide greater flexibility and accuracy in hazard communication by allowing additional descriptions for certain gas mixtures. • Increase the safe transportation of explosives by updating certain Institute of Makers of Explosives (IME) documents currently incorporated by reference. • Modify the definition of “liquid” to include the test for determining fluidity (penetrometer test) prescribed in the European Agreement concerning the International Carriage of Dangerous Goods by Road (ADR). • Incorporate by reference the Compressed Gas Association's (CGA) publication C-20-2014, “Requalification Standard for Metallic, DOT and TC 3-series Gas Cylinders and Tubes Using Ultrasonic Examination,” Second Edition, which will eliminate the need for some existing DOT special permits and allow alternative methods for the requalification of cylinders. This revision would eliminate the need for special permit applications and renewals. • Incorporate by reference the updated Appendix A of CGA publication C-7-2020, “Guide to Classification and Labeling of Compressed Gases,” Eleventh Edition. • Incorporate by reference the CGA publication C-27-2019, “Standard Procedure to Derate the Service Pressure of DOT 3-Series Seamless Steel Tubes, First Edition.” • Incorporate by reference the CGA publication CGA C-29-2019, “Standard for Design Requirements for Tube Trailers and Tube Modules, First Edition.” • Incorporate by reference the CGA publication CGA V-9-2019, “Compressed Gas Association Standard for Compressed Gas Cylinder Valves, Eighth Edition.” <HD SOURCE="HD1">II. Incorporation by Reference Discussion Under 1 CFR Part 51</HD> According to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Circular A-119, “Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities,” government agencies must use voluntary consensus standards wherever practical in the development of regulations. PHMSA currently incorporates by reference into the HMR all or the relevant parts of several standards and specifications developed and published by standard development organizations (SDOs). In general, SDOs update and revise their published standards every two to five years to reflect modern technology and best technical practices. The National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA; Pub. L. 104-113, 15 U.S.C. 272 note) directs Federal agencies to use standards developed by voluntary consensus standards bodies in lieu of government-written standards unless doing so would be inconsistent with applicable law or otherwise impracticable. Voluntary consensus standards bodies develop, establish, or coordinate technical standards using agreed-upon procedures. OMB issued Circular A-119 to implement section 12(d) of the NTTAA relative to the utilization of consensus technical standards by Federal agencies. This circular provides guidance for agencies participating in voluntary consensus standards bodies and describes procedures for satisfying the reporting requirements in the NTTAA. Consistent with the requirements of the NTTAA and its statutory authorities, PHMSA is responsible for determining which currently referenced standards should be updated, revised, or removed, and which standards should be added to the HMR. Revisions to materials incorporated by reference in the HMR are handled via the rulemaking process, which allows the public and regulated entities to provide input. During the rulemaking process, PHMSA must also obtain approval from the Office of the Federal Register to incorporate by reference any new materials. Regulations of the Office of the Federal Register require that agencies detail in the preamble of a final rule the ways the materials it incorporates by reference are reasonably available to interested parties, or how the agency worked to make those materials reasonably available to interested parties. ( <E T="03">See</E> 1 CFR 51.5.) IME standards are free and accessible to the public via the IME website at <E T="03">https://www.ime.org/products/cate ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 232k characters. 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