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Breaking News • Safety & Compliance • New Members |
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Safety & Compliance News Ferro, Quarterman Confirmed as FMCSA, PHMSA Administrators • On November 5, the U.S. Senate confirmed the nomination of Anne Ferro as administrator of the Federal Motor Carriers Safety Administration and Cynthia Quarterman as administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Ferro's nomination was held up by concerns that she was too close to the motor carrier industry, having served as president and CEO of the Maryland Motor Truck Association. Once the FMCSA agreed to reconsider its driver hours of service rulemaking, however, the Senate moved her nomination to the floor, where she was confirmed with just one dissenting vote (Senator Olympia Snowe, R-ME). House Committee to Markup Hazmat Reauthorization Bill • The Transportation and Infrastructure Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives held a meeting on November 19, to markup and vote on the legislation to reauthorize the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act, the statute that authorizes DOT to regulate hazardous materials transportation. The HMTA reauthorization has been pulled from the highway reauthorization legislation so that the hazmat provisions may be moved on a separate, faster track. Congress is concerned about the handling of special permits (formerly called exemptions) and approvals by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. Some members of Congress have complained that PHMSA regulators are too close to the shippers and carriers they regulate.
With regard to Approvals, PHMSA will have to make a "fitness determination" on all applicants. In addition, PHMSA will have authority to modify, suspend or terminate a special permit if the holder violates the conditions of the special permit. Fees will be charges to cover the cost of processing and enforcement of special permits and approvals. Finally, the House committee will likely add a provision to the hazmat bill requiring a rulemaking by PHMSA to ban wetlines, i.e., the transportation of flammables in the piping underneath a tank trailer. PHMSA had announced in the June 7, 2006, Federal Register that it was ending the wetlines rulemaking effort contained in HM-213B, acknowledging that the agency had not identified a cost-effective approach for addressing the risk of wetlines transportation through regulatory action. GAWDA Government Affairs Consultant Rick Schweitzer briefed House Democrat and Republican staffers on the need to expedite the Special Permit and Approvals process and to establish objective criteria for these procedures. FMCSA Schedules Webinars on CSA 2010 • The FMCSA will hold two public webinars to inform interested parties of the agency's Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 initiative. 74 Federal Register 56918 (November 3, 2009). CSA 2010 is a comprehensive review, analysis and restructuring of FMCSA’s current compliance and enforcement program. The FMCSA plans to use the webinars to brief participants on the direction and progress of CSA 2010, and obtain feedback and answer questions from its stakeholders. The agency states that it will also provide motor carriers, drivers and other stakeholders with information on what changes will occur with the implementation of CSA 2010, and how best to prepare for those changes. The public webinars will be held on December 3 and December 10 at 3:30 p.m. EST, and each webinar will last 90 minutes. During the public webinars, FMCSA will provide the following:
To register for the webinars, attendees must register online at http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov by November 30. After registration, participants will receive the specific Internet address and access information for the webinars. Information from the CSA 2010 public webinars will be posted on the FMCSA's public Web site at http://csa2010.fmcsa.dot.gov and in the docket after the webinars. FMCSA to Reconsider Hours of Service Rule • In order to settle the litigation over the current driver hours of service regulations, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration has agreed to reconsider its November 19, 2008, final rule that imposed the 11-hour daily driving limit and the 34-hour weekly on-duty reset provision. As part of the settlement, the FMCSA agreed to submit a new notice of proposed rulemaking to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review within 9 months and to publish a new final rule within 21 months. During that time, the current hours of service rules will remain in effect. The FMCSA and Public Citizen, along with the other parties challenging the rule, have filed a joint motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to approve the settlement agreement and to stay the appeal while the new rulemaking is pending. The court is expected to approve the motion. This settlement is the latest indication from the Obama Administration of a new focus on regulatory enforcement and less cooperation with regulated industries. Although it is not certain that the new hours of service rulemaking will change the current requirements, the FMCSA's decision to reconsider the rule indicates that the agency is willing to take a different approach than the Bush Administration on motor carrier safety. The fact that commercial motor vehicle accidents and fatalities have fallen significantly in the years since the new HOS rules have been in effect will militate against any wholesale changes, however.  New Members GAWDA is pleased to welcome new Distributor Member Carbonic Service of Santa Clara, CA, and new Supplier Member Hartman Brothers of Montrose, CO. Industry Beat Rolling On (Houston, TX) • Technical Alloy and Industrial Gases purchased a new 2.5 ton Ford 550 palletized delivery truck in September. The new vehicle is the company's fifth. In addition, the company hired driver Kelvin Banks, who started on November 16. Banks has five years' prior experience in gas delivery driving.
Cooking With Gas (Indianapolis, IN) • Sutton-Garten Company installed a 1,000-gallon bulk propane pumping station at its main facility in August. The station was operational on September 15. "There's a growing market for propane. We're in the downtown area and there are not a lot of propane exchange facilities in our area," said President W. Pat Garten. Rushing To Excellence (Somerset, NJ) • Matthieu Rush joined the inside sales team at Cavagna North America as an assistant liquefied petroleum gas product manager. Rush has previous experience as an LPG product manager and in inside sales and customer service. Tri-Tech Acquired (Radnor, PA) • Tri-Tech, a distributor of industrial, medical and specialty gases in Tampa, FL, was acquired by Airgas on November 16. Tri-Tech’s assets generate approximately $31M. ESABest (Florence, SC) • ESAB received the 2009 Global Best Partners Welding & Cutting Systems for Energy Generation Award. ITW Acquisition (Glenview, IL) • Illinois Tool Works acquired assets of Hartness International, which makes conveyor systems and line automation for the beverage and food industries. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Hartness will be a wholly owned business unit of Illinois Tool Works and part of the company's consumer packaging group. Hartness will keep its brand name and operate as a separate business.
New CFO (Bellville, TX) • Michael McWilliams joined Western International Gas & Cylinders as chief financial officer. McWilliams will direct the acetylene and propylene wholesale distributor’s overall financial operations, including financial analyses and projections, treasury management and financial statement preparation. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst. South Park Welding Explosion (Marysville, MI) • South Park Welding Supplies employees returned to work on November 3, the day after several explosions resulted in one injury to employee Gary Hall, who was released from Detroit Receiving Hospital on November 11. The police are still investigating the cause of the explosions. Praxair Raises Prices (Danbury, CT) • Praxair notified bulk industrial and bulk medical gas customers in the United States and Canada of the following increases in prices and facility fees, effective November 15, 2009, or as contracts permit: 10% for nitrogen, oxygen, argon, hydrogen and carbon dioxide; 5% for helium; and 10% for facility fees or monthly basic charges. Price adjustments may be higher or lower than these ranges in accordance with contract provisions. Lead Into Gold (Livermore, CA) • A joint venture company of Waste Management, a waste services company, and Linde North America began producing clean, renewable vehicle fuel on November 2 at an Altamont Landfill facility. The facility in Livermore, CA, is the world’s largest landfill gas to liquefied natural gas plant. New ASU On Tap (La Porte, TX) • Air Products announced plans to build a new world-scale air separation unit (ASU) at its La Porte, TX, industrial gases facility. The new ASU will be on-stream in October 2011.
GAWDA News GAWDA Membership Directory Listing • Download the updated listing of GAWDA distributor and supplier members here or visit the GAWDA Web site and link to Members Only. You can also purchase a copy of the printed directory or the mailing list in an Excel Spreadsheet format. Just complete this order form. GAWDA Member Testimonials • Is your GAWDA membership valuable to your business? Send GAWDA (gawda@gawda.org) a quote to be used on the testimonial page of the Web site, www.gawda.org/About/testimonials.cfm, or as a marketing document. Profit Planning Group • The Executive Committee has decided to discontinue GAWDA's participation in Dr. Albert Bates' Compensation and Profit Surveys/Studies due to a decrease in member participation. The Profit Planning Group still offers programs for individual companies that may be of interest to members if they desire comparisons to other distribution industries. Workshops, Web Conferences & Seminars The FMCSA public webinars on Comprehensive Safety Analysis 2010 initiative University of Industrial Distribution - Sponsored by GAWDA GAWDA Professional Compliance Seminar
The GAWDA Connection is distributed on the 8th and 23rd of each month to all GAWDA members as a membership service of GAWDA, the Gases and Welding Distributors Association, 100 N. 20th Street, 4th Floor, Philadelphia, PA, 19103-1443. Neither GAWDA nor Data Key Communications, LLC, their officers, directors, members and staff are responsible for contents or opinions other than those concerning Association activities. If you no longer wish to receive the GAWDA Connection, please respond here.
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