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On January 16, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a press release announcing that the Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) Final Rule was sent to the Federal Register. The press release has since been removed from the PHMSA Newsroom. However, the Federal Register was unable to formally publish the rule prior to the administration change and the issuance of President Trump’s Executive Order: Regulatory Freeze Pending Review. This Executive Order instructed all executive departments and agencies to “immediately withdraw any rules that have been sent to the Office of the Federal Register, but not yet published in the Federal Register.” This was the exact scenario for the LDAR Rule, and therefore, it has been withdrawn.

PHMSA will now have to ensure that the requirements within the drafted rule, as well as all cost-benefit analyses of the rule, align with the Trump Administration's policies. This will take some time and likely will change some of the final requirements that were included in the draft attached to PHMSA’s press release. APGA expects PHMSA’s political appointees to be announced in the coming days and looks forward to working with them to understand the path forward for this rule. 

For questions on this article, please contact Erin Kurilla of APGA staff by phone at 202-464-2742 or by email at ekurilla@apga.org.