The Occupational Safety and Health Administration will develop regulations to update its Process Safety Management Standard but won't exempt ag retailers from PSM requirements in the meantime.

 

In a letter to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals last week, Labor Department attorney Lauren Goodman said OSHA decided to develop a rule because of “congressional report language indicating a preference for rulemaking.” Congress, at the urging of ag retailers and the fertilizer industry, included language in the report accompanying the fiscal 2016 omnibus spending bill that “directs” the agency to maintain the longstanding exemption from PSM for ag retailers until it completes a rulemaking.

 

Report language does not carry the force of law, however, and OSHA had not committed to a rulemaking until Goodman wrote to the court May 5.

 

OSHA had issued an “interpretive rule” last July subjecting retailers to PSM requirements, which the dealers said would cost them up to $25,000 per facility to comply with - 10 times the amount estimated by OSHA. It delayed PSM enforcement at retail establishments twice, the second time until Oct. 1, 2016, after Congress approved the report language (more OSHA information here).

 

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