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Friday, August 12, 2005

OIRA meets over MSHA Diesel Rule
OIRA and the Department of Labor met with representatives from the National Mining Association, FMC Corporation (a major chemical producer), as well as a lobbyist from Patton Boggs over the Mine Safety and Health Administration's diesel rule.

On June 6, MSHA published the Diesel Particulate Matter Exposure of Underground Metal and Nonmetal Miners Rule. The rule changes the way MSHA calculates diesel particulate matter emission limits in underground mines. According to the agency, the new calculations, based on permissible exposure limits measured by elemental carbon, are comparable to the former measurements, which measured limits based on total carbon emissions. In comments filed on behalf of the United Mine Workers of America, however, Advanced Technologies and Laboratories International senior scientist James Weeks points out that the new emissions standards are actually weaker than the older standards. By basing emission standards on elemental carbon rather than total carbon emissions, the new emissions standard will no longer capture the hundred of organic compounds combined with diesel particulate matter, many of which are carcinogenic.

The new regulation also contains other provisions that weaken the protection and could ultimately render the regulation impotent. Mines will be able to receive an unlimited number of one-year special extensions, administered by an MSHA district manager. Moreover, the new regulation now requires the agency to consider economic feasibility rather than just technical feasibility when considering special extensions for compliance with the rule. This new provision could open a floodgate of special extensions that will allow mines to avoid implementing the emissions standards altogether.

MSHA originally established the health standard using total carbon emissions on Jan. 19, 2001. Industry challenged the rule and organized labor intervened. The settlement agreement that followed required MSHA to promulgate a further series of rules addressing specific issues, including several that are addressed in this rulemaking. The new standard is an interim final rule. MSHA is required to create a more stringent standard in 2006, revising the concentration limit to 160 micrograms per cubic meter of air.

Read comments on the regulation by the United Mine Workers of America and the Center for Progressive Reform.

Posted by Genevieve Smith, 03:14:53 PM

Regulation and Competitiveness
The industry-funded position in favor of rollbacks often includes an argument that regulation to protect the public is a burden on American businesses that hinder them from competing in the global marketplace. The evidence from the economics literature tells us something much, much different. Learn more in this OMB Watch issue brief, Regulation and Competitiveness.

Posted by Robert Shull, 12:16:20 PM

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Hit List Update: Federal Motor Carriers
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has disclosed, in response to OMB Watch's FOIA request, internal correspondence reflecting the agency's position on two nominations for the White House's anti-regulatory hit list -- one regarding the rules restricting the hours of service that companies can force truck drivers to work, in particular for companies such as Wal-Mart that are not in the trucking industry itself; and the other, regarding surge brakes. There is also additional information about a HAZMAT rule, which is actually a RSPA rule rather than a FMCSA rule. Download the correspondence.

The hours-of-service response is ultimately rather empty: it reflects only that FMCSA is currently in court over the hours of service rules. Given that the administration is under court order to re-fashion the hours of service rules, there seems little reason for the administration to have endorsed revision of the HOS rules for the final hit list. Is the administration signalling its intention to issue revised rules that distinguish between long-haul trucking and local trucking -- or to create, essentially, a Wal-Mart exception to whatever are the final HOS rules?

The endorsement of the industry wish for FMCSA to allow surge brakes on certain trailers also seems unnecessary, given that the agency has already granted an industry petition for rulemaking on that very subject. This case underscores the redundancy and inefficiency of the OMB hit list project: industry does not need OMB as a middle man, because it can already petition the agencies directly for rulemaking. Also, the hit list process diverted agency resources to respond, even in cases in which the agency has already begun to act long before the hit list itself.

Posted by Robert Shull, 06:54:15 PM

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