FMC Chairman Daniel B. Maffei: The civil penalty agreements “ship a transparent message to worldwide transport neighborhood that ocean carriers should absolutely adjust to the U.S. authorized obligations.”
On October 14, 2022, the Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPR) on detention and demurrage billing necessities. Industry pursuits didn’t prefer it, saying that it had facets that would worsen port congestionand the related. Two business our bodies, the World Shipping Council and the Pacific Maritime Association, filed a petition for review objecting to the Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact within the NPR.
On January 6, the Federal Maritime Commission issued an order – accepted unanimously by the 5 Commissioners – rejecting the petition.
In an announcement, FMC Chairman Daniel B. Maffei famous that the teams submitting this petition had additionally individually submitted substantive feedback to the proposed rule itself.
“The rejection of this petition in no way means that those views will be ignored as we proceed through the rulemaking process,” stated Maffei. “Our goal is to craft a final rule that avoids unintended negative consequences, and sincerely-offered comments from stakeholders are extremely valuable to that end.”
PATH TO DERAILMENT
“However, I feel I must call it out when I see an attempt to subvert the regulatory process by filing a petition,” Maffei continued. “The PMSA/WSC petition claims to be selling the general public good, however truly seeks to misapply the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to thwart the FMC’s efforts to implement the need of the Congress and the President of the United States. It opens a path to derail an FMC rulemaking that meets a requirement established within the Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022 (OSRA), which handed with overwhelming bipartisan assist. The regulation particularly emphasised the significance of billing the suitable events to transactions, and the FMC is presently contemplating a proposed rule involved with bettering the equity of detention and demurrage billing.
“The submitting of this petition (even after its rejection at this time) might lay the groundwork for the carriers to impede the proposed rule in Federal courtroom by arguing for a full NEPA Environmental Impact Assessment – a course of that usually takes a number of years – earlier than the rule can go into impact. It will surely not be the primary time that an business utilized authorized proceedings to search out administrative avenues to undermine wanted regulatory adjustments. To indicate, because the petition does, that difficult the Commission’s Environmental Assessment is ‘the best way to address impacts on the quality of the human environment in lower income and minority communities surrounding seaport areas’ fails the eye-roll take a look at.
“I see such dilatory tactics as wholly inconsistent with the individual statements of cooperation with the FMC’s broad efforts to implement OSRA that I have received from many members of the WSC board.”
PORT CONGESTION AND POLLUTION
In response, the WSC and PMA stated: “We respectfully however categorically reject the Chairman’s characterization. Our Petition for Review was submitted within the method supplied for within the rulemaking course of, and as required by federal regulation and regulation.
“As we said in our feedback on the detention and demurrage rule, we’re involved that facets of the proposed rules will make port congestion worse. Many different commenters agree. Port congestion must be prevented each as a result of it’s unhealthy for American shippers and U.S. ports and likewise as a result of congestion causes pointless air air pollution. That was the easy level that we raised.
“We will continue to work with the Commission to support a regulation that keeps cargo moving through our ports for the benefit of American importers and exporters, in an environmentally sustainable manner.”
