{"id":863035,"date":"2023-07-05T09:52:01","date_gmt":"2023-07-05T13:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thecompliancecenter.com\/ca\/?p=863035"},"modified":"2023-07-05T09:52:01","modified_gmt":"2023-07-05T13:52:01","slug":"phmsa-publishes-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-for-miscellaneous-amendments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thecompliancecenter.com\/ca\/help-center\/articles\/phmsa-publishes-notice-of-proposed-rulemaking-for-miscellaneous-amendments\/","title":{"rendered":"PHMSA Publishes Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for \u201cMiscellaneous Amendments\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"PHMSA Publishes Notice of Proposed Rulemaking for \u201cMiscellaneous Amendments\u201d<\/h2>\n

Who doesn\u2019t love the term \u201cmiscellaneous?\u201d It covers so many things, from the stuff in your kitchen drawer to hazardous materials that don\u2019t fit into the main eight classes of dangerous goods. And it\u2019s also handy when regulators have several important but unrelated changes to make. For example, the Pipelines and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has published a new proposed set of \u201cmiscellaneous\u201d amendments to Title 49 of the Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR).<\/p>\n

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking<\/a> (NPRM) was published on March 3, 2023, and closed comments on May 2. The reference assigned is 2137-AF49. Remember, NPRMs are proposals, not finalized amendments, so the Final Rule may be different, depending on the enthusiasm of the comments received.<\/p>\n

What Are the Proposed Changes?<\/h4>\n

What are the miscellaneous changes being proposed? Although they are quite broad-ranging, there does seem to be an emphasis on Class 2, Gases, and the topic of \u201cincorporating standards by reference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Incorporation by reference is defined by Wikipedia as the \u201cact of including a second document within another document by only mentioning the second document\u201d<\/a> and further states that \u201cin American administrative law, incorporation by reference is a drafting tool that enables federal agencies to give legal effect to materials that are already published elsewhere.\u201d In effect, it takes external standards and by referencing them in the regulation, makes them legally enforceable. PHMSA already has incorporated many references into the \u201cHazardous Materials Regulations\u201d (HMR) of 49 CFR \u2013 from international standards like the UN<\/em> Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods<\/em><\/a> to commercial or industry standards, such as those from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

What are these miscellaneous changes being proposed? First of all, for gases in Class 2:<\/p>\n