PHMSA Extends Comment Period for Crude Oil Volatility Proposal

In January this year, US EPA published an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPRM) to potentially establish vapor pressure limits for unrefined petroleum products (and potentially all Class 3 materials) shipped by any mode of transport.

The public comment period for this ANPRM was set to end on March 20—but has now been extended for an additional 60 days, in part due to requests from major industry stakeholders including the American Petroleum Institute. Comments on this potential crude oil rulemaking are now due before May 19, 2017.
Read the announcement of the comment period extension in today’s Federal Register.

EPA’s initial ANPRM and request for comments on its crude oil volatility rulemaking lists a whopping 39 questions for industry to answer regarding the perceived safety benefits and difficulties of compliance with a vapor pressure limit.

To read more about this ANPRM, and other crude oil rulemakings finalized by US DOT in the past two years, check out our previous post PHMSA Starts Rolling on New Crude Oil Volatility Standards.
 

Convenient Online Training for Hazmat Rail Shippers

To help rail shippers and railroads maintain compliance with changing US DOT standards for hazmat shipments, the new Hazmat Ground Shipper—Additional Rail Requirements Online Course covers the complex rules for this unique mode of transport. Designed to help offerors meet DOT’s function-specific hazmat training mandate at 49 CFR 172.704(a)(2), the course covers the requirements for shipping hazmat by tank car, freight container, and bulk or non-bulk packages.

Tags: DOT, hazmat shipping, new rules, oil and gas, PHMSA