On February 8, 2001, in accordance with the Regulatory Review Plan published in the Federal Register on January 24, 2001, the DOT delayed the effective date of the final rule titled "Pipeline Safety: Areas Unusually Sensitive to Environmental Damage," published in the Federal Register on December 21, 2000, 65 FR 80530 , from February 20, 2001, to a new effective date of April 21, 2001. Also on February 8, and for the same reasons, the DOT delayed the effective date of the final rule titled "Pipeline Safety: Pipeline Integrity Management in High Consequence Areas (Hazardous Liquid Operators with 500 or More Miles of Pipelines)," published in the Federal Register on December 1, 2000, 65 FR 75378, from March 31, 2001, to a new effective date of May 29, 2001.

Editor's note: Denise Hamsher, a member of THLPSSC, pointed out to us that the moratorium on these rules will delay the effective date of the rules but will NOT change the COMPLIANCE dates imbedded in the regulations. In fact, according to OPS legal staff during the recent Technical Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Standards Committee meeting, we should plan on all the compliance dates remaining the same (unless specifically notified in federal notice otherwise).