A year ago, the oil and natural gas industry was preparing comments and responses to several expansive proposed rules issued by the Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA).  With the advent of the Trump Administration and its focus on deregulation, those pending rules have since been withdrawn and are being reevaluated (among hundreds of other administrative agency rules).  In the first 100 days of this Administration, the White House issued 58 executive orders and memoranda, nearly a quarter of which affected the pipeline industry directly or indirectly.  In the six months since, the President has continued to issue directives aimed at eliminating regulatory burdens and expediting energy infrastructure.  While these directives were met with initial relief from the industry, they lack clear deadlines and details and it has fallen on the various administrative agencies to interpret and implement them.  To complicate matters, the Administration has simultaneously issued budget cuts across the board and has been slow to appoint key leadership positions.  For an industry that relies on regulatory certainty, much remains uncertain.
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Continue Reading Deregulation at DOT:  Direction Unknown