Union Pacific Railroad Company v. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration

Summary

**Union Pacific Railroad Co. v. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration**, 2020, D.C. Cir. — The court upheld a PHMSA regulation under the FAST Act requiring railroads to flag aggregated hazardous material data as sensitive to state emergency response commissions, rather than imposing direct federal confidentiality protections. The majority held the regulation was not arbitrary or capricious because the agency reasonably found the flagging mechanism sufficient to prevent inadvertent public disclosure, and the railroad failed to provide evidence that aggregated data could be exploited. The dissent argued the agency improperly delegated its statutory duty to "establish security and confidentiality protections" to state law, violating the plain text of § 7302(a)(6).

Holdings

1. The regulation is neither dependent on a misreading of the statute nor arbitrary and capricious. The agency's mechanism of flagging information to states, combined with state law protections, is sufficient to ensure confidentiality and security, given the lack of evidence of harm from disclosure.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the agency's regulation complies with the FAST Act's requirement to 'establish security and confidentiality protections' for the advanced notification information provided by Class I railroads.

Disposition

other