The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) has temporarily suspended a Trump-era rule that allowed the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail via specialized tank cars.

PHMSA, in coordination with the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA), amended existing hazardous materials regulations to bring about the suspension, which will be in effect until one of two conditions is met: either the completion of an ongoing rulemaking that’s looking at potential modifications to the provisions that govern LNG transport via a special kind of tank car, or the agencies reach the date of June 30, 2025.

This decision is effective on Oct. 31. PHMSA first sought public comments on whether to suspend the Trump rule in November 2021.

The July 2020 rule under former President Donald Trump allows for the bulk transportation of LNG using DOT-113 tank cars with enhanced outer tank requirements and additional operational controls. This tank car is also known as a cryogenic tank car.

But PHMSA’s decision suspends that rule, with the agency noting that since July 2020, no company has transported LNG via this specialized tank car, nor is PHMSA aware of any order to build this kind of tank car.

The agency cited several reasons for why it decided to temporarily suspend the rule. The suspension guarantees that no such transport of LNG via these rail cars will occur before June 30, 2025, and it allows PHMSA, FRA and other technical experts to both complete ongoing testing and evaluation efforts as well as make stakeholders aware of those results. The suspension also provides time to develop any mitigation measures and operational controls related to transporting LNG via these tank cars, and it ensures that companies avoid ordering tank cars that might not be compliant with federal rules. 

PHMSA’s decision was greeted with disappointment by the Railway Supply Institute (RSI), a trade group representing rail car manufacturers.

“Transporting LNG has a proven safety record, and with our country continuing to face rising energy prices, we should be incentivizing critical infrastructure that can provide additional capacity to the U.S. We should not have to rely on foreign sources of LNG to meet demand in certain parts of the country,” RSI President Patty Long said in a statement.

PHMSA told FreightWaves in June 2022 that current federal regulations do authorize LNG by rail using UN portable tanks with prior approval from FRA. Both Florida East Coast Railway and Alaska Railroad have received approvals to do this. UN tanks are smaller intermodal packages that hold approximately 10,000 gallons of product, while tank cars hold about 30,000 gallons.

“LNG has been safely shipped by other modes of transportation for decades, including ships and trucks. More than 435 million shipments of hazardous materials are transported every year under [hazardous materials regulations], and the safety record of transporting hazardous materials by rail is factually outstanding,” Long said. “Shipping LNG in a robust and specially built cryogenic tank car makes sense and will provide a safer, more efficient, and more environmentally friendly method of transportation for LNG.”

An attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council told FreightWaves in March that a suspension of the Trump rule would provide regulatory certainty, particularly in the wake of the Feb. 3 derailment of a Norfolk Southern train in East Palestine, Ohio. That derailment didn’t include any tank cars carrying LNG, but it did include the transport of some hazardous materials, including vinyl chloride. 

Local officials and Norfolk Southern had decided to vent the tank cars carrying vinyl chloride out of concern that the chemical reactions occurring inside the tank cars because of the derailment could bring about an explosion.

Indeed, PHMSA’s Friday decision alluded to the East Palestine train derailment. 

The DOT–105 specification tank cars [carrying vinyl chloride that were involved in the derailment “were not punctured in the derailment. PHMSA is working with the National Transportation Safety Board to learn all it can from this incident and determine whether the lessons learned should inform rail transportation of other hazardous commodities such as LNG,” PHMSA’s decision said.

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