Congress just put the brakes on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s regulatory overreach.

 

On July 22, OSHA released an enforcement memorandum rescinding all prior policy documents, letters of interpretation, and memoranda related to the retail exemption to Process Safety Management (PSM), a set of procedural, operational and organizational design standards intended to prevent the release of highly hazardous chemicals at manufacturing facilities.

 

The memo, released without opportunity for public comment and outside of the formal rulemaking process, would force virtually all agricultural retailers that store and sell anhydrous ammonia to comply with PSM.

 

“OSHA is misguided in trying to apply PSM to ag retailers,” said Harold Cooper, ARA Chairman and CEO of Premier Ag Cooperative in Columbus, IN. “OSHA intentionally exempted ag retailers from PSM since the rule’s inception in 1992. Forcing us to comply with regulations aimed at manufacturers would cost my business at least $60,000, and not provide any improvement in worker safety – just more bureaucratic red tape.”

 

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