Facility Safety

Without a public announcement, OSHA has updated its nearly 30-year-old enforcement handbook for the process safety management (PSM) standard, adding dozens of interpretations the agency previously set out in responses to stakeholders’ letters questioning various aspects of the rule’s meaning or application.

Republican leaders for the House Energy and Commerce Committee are urging EPA to withdraw and repropose its upcoming Risk Management Program (RMP) rule update, charging that the proposed version conflicts with OSHA and other agencies’ responsibilities, goes beyond Congress’ explicit mandates, and raises security concerns among things.

Lawmakers and industry groups that support the lapsed Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program are warning that states could create a “patchwork” of substitutes for the federal initiative following introduction of one such bill in Nebraska, adding urgency to their steady calls for Congress to pass a reauthorization.

A top official at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) says her team is refocusing their facility-safety resources on the voluntary ChemLock initiative after Congress allowed the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program to expire, but underlined that it “is not a substitute in any way” for binding regulation.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is again urging OSHA to either extend current safety standards to oil and gas drilling operations or craft a new rule for the sector in its report on a fatal 2020 blowout at a Texas oil well.

Industry figures say enough lawmakers are signaling support for reauthorizing the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards (CFATS) program that they expect “opportunities” for a renewal in the new year -- though still with some uncertainty over whether that support will be enough to push a bill across the finish line.

The Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) has published a pair of reports in the space of a week that call for OSHA to craft new safety standards, with one recommending the agency enact a nationwide safety rule for workers who deal with liquid nitrogen and another broadening its past calls for a rulemaking on combustible dust.

Two environmental groups are renewing their push for EPA to strengthen its upcoming Risk Management Program (RMP) update, citing data on chemical-facility accidents as recent as Oct. 15, as supporters of a strict policy continue to raise public concerns that the agency’s upcoming final rule will fall short of their goals in several key areas.

Environmentalists are pushing to toughen EPA’s final risk management program (RMP) rule in a series of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) meetings while warning that the agency is working too closely with industry on the policy, including one source who says it has shown trade associations the regulation, but not citizen groups.

OSHA has sent a long-promised proposal to update its safety standards for emergency responders for White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) review -- a move that means the plan will likely miss its November target but could see release by the end of the year or in early 2024, more than 16 years after it was first announced.