NACD Praises Senate Hearing on Regulatory Overreach

ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 23, 2015 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD) applauded the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs and Federal Management for holding the hearing titled, "Examining the Use of Agency Regulatory Guidance." The hearing looked at the Administrative Procedure Act and ways federal agencies misuse provisions in the act to issue guidance documents in lieu of rulemaking.

For the hearing, NACD Chairman Mathew Brainerd submitted a statement to the official record highlighting one such example of agency overreach. On June 5, 2015, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) issued an enforcement memorandum substantially expanding the universe of chemical manufacturers and distributors subject to the agency's Process Safety Management (PSM) standard.

The PSM standard requires manufacturers and distributors to develop and implement a PSM program any time they have a threshold amount of a highly hazardous chemical involved in a process, including storage. Appendix A to PSM lists the highly hazardous chemicals and the minimum threshold amount for each material that triggers PSM requirements. OSHA's June 5 memorandum, however, simply replaced OSHA's prior policy with a portion of an Environmental Protection Agency Clean Air Act rule. Under the new memorandum, if the total weight of a chemical without a specified concentration under PSM's Appendix A is at one percent or greater and meets the minimum threshold amount, it is now covered by PSM. Under this change, a large number of chemical distributors that were not covered under the original standard will now be expected to comply with PSM.

In his comments, Brainerd said, "Eighty-five percent of NACD members have less than 100 employees, meaning this change will have wide-sweeping and costly impacts on small businesses across the country. This change will impose substantial regulatory burdens on them, with costs ranging from $20,000 up to $1 million per member company depending on their products and operations."

Said NACD President Eric R. Byer, "Given the significant expansion OSHA made to the PSM standard, the agency clearly should have initiated a formal rulemaking process to include stakeholder input. That this hearing was even necessary proves yet again that federal agencies continue to overreach. NACD thanks Chairman Lankford for bringing attention to this critical issue."

NACD and its nearly 440 member companies are vital to the chemical supply chain providing products to over 750,000 end users. NACD members are leaders in health, safety, security, and environmental performance through implementation of Responsible Distribution, established in 1991 as a condition of membership and a third-party-verified management practice. For more information, visit www.NACD.com.

Contact: Matt McKinney
(571) 482-3074
[email protected] 

Logo - http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20100811/NACDLOGO

SOURCE National Association of Chemical Distributors (NACD)