Transportation attorney Cynthia L. Quarterman — who was directer of Minerals Management Service (MMS) in the Clinton administration — was nominated by President Obama to be administrator of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) at the Department of Transportation (DOT).

PHMSA, which was created in 2004, is responsible for the transportation of hazardous materials by rail, truck and pipeline. Through PHMSA, the DOT develops and enforces regulations for the operation of the nation’s 2.3 million-mile pipeline system and the nearly one million daily shipments of hazardous materials by land, sea and air. PHMSA regulations cover a range of issues including rail tank car safety and hazardous materials handling for truckers and shippers, as well as hazardous materials carried aboard airplanes.

The administrator position is currently vacant. The last administrator was Carl T. Johnson, who was appointed by President Bush in 2008. Cynthia Douglass is acting deputy administrator.

Quarterman is a partner in the Washington, DC, office of Steptoe & Johnson LLP, where she has a regulatory and litigation practice in the areas of transportation and natural resources. She has more than 20 years of experience in the transportation of hazardous materials by pipeline.

She served as a past director of the MMS at the Department of the Interior, which oversees the leasing, exploration and resource development on the nation’s Outer Continental Shelf, including the transportation of hazardous materials by pipeline. Quarterman earned a juris doctorate degree from Columbia University’s School of Law and a bachelors of science in industrial engineering degree from Northwestern University.

Among the issues she was involved with as director of MMS was the agency’s royalty-in-kind pilot (see Daily GPI, Jan. 19, 1999).

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