Three Signatures, One Page
The instrument is two pages. Three signatures appear at the bottom, one for each of the FMCSA’s regional service centers: Taft Kelly for the Eastern, Darrell L. Ruban for the Southern, Scott G. Hernandez for the Western. Regional Emergency Declaration No. 2021-002, issued under 49 CFR ยง 390.23 (the federal rule permitting FMCSA to grant immediate relief from its own safety regulations when a highway emergency requires it), took effect upon signing on May 9, 2021. Its stated ceiling was 11:59 P.M. ET, June 8, 2021, subject to earlier termination at FMCSA’s discretion. The document was published by the National Security Archive on September 5, 2021, nearly four months after its effective date.
“Network Issues”
The declaration states that the Colonial pipeline system underwent an “unanticipated” shutdown caused by “network issues,” disrupting the supply of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, and other refined petroleum products across 17 states and the District of Columbia. The affected jurisdictions are listed in the text: Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia, together with the District of Columbia. The pipeline’s operating company is not named.
The phrase is administrative drafting language, not an evasion. By May 10, 2021, the FBI had publicly confirmed that the DarkSide ransomware group was responsible for compromising Colonial Pipeline’s corporate IT network. Colonial Pipeline later disclosed that it shut down pipeline operations proactively, to prevent potential spread from the corporate IT environment to the operational systems running the physical infrastructure. When the National Security Archive indexed the declaration on September 5, 2021, it described the document as suspending “certain motor carrier safety regulations in order to mitigate potential fuel shortages caused by the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack”, the word “ransomware” appears nowhere in the declaration itself. That context does not appear inside the declaration, which is consistent with how emergency administrative instruments are normally drafted: they act on a determination already made through other channels and do not recapitulate the underlying investigation.
What Was Suspended, and What Was Not
The relief applied to 49 CFR Parts 390 through 399, the main body of federal motor carrier safety regulations, including hours-of-service limits. It applied only while a carrier was engaged in “direct assistance” tied to the fuel shortage; the exemption ended automatically the moment a carrier or driver returned to ordinary commercial work. A driver transitioning from emergency to normal operations was required to take a mandatory 10-hour break once combined operating time reached 14 hours.
Five categories were carved out and received no exemption: controlled substances and alcohol testing under Part 382, commercial driver’s license requirements under Part 383, financial responsibility and insurance rules under Part 387, hazardous materials regulations under Parts 100 through 180, and applicable size and weight limits. Carriers under an active out-of-service order were excluded from any relief until that order was lifted.
The Declaration’s Own Lifecycle
The original instrument did not remain static. On May 12, 2021, an amended version added Connecticut and West Virginia to the covered jurisdictions. On June 4, 2021, a further modification reduced the covered area to ten states: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas, and pushed the expiration date to 11:59 P.M. ET, June 18, 2021. The record does not explain why those particular states remained in scope while the others were released, or why the deadline was extended ten days beyond the original ceiling.
Four Silences in the Record
Four silences run through the record, each worth marking separately.
The first concerns cause. The “network issues” that shut down the pipeline are named but never described. The cause was established through other channels and by other agencies; it does not appear inside the document.
The second concerns identity. The pipeline’s operating company is not named anywhere in the declaration, an instrument covering 17 states and the District of Columbia that lists every affected jurisdiction and every carve-out category in precise regulatory language.
The third concerns scale. The record contains no after-action accounting of any kind. The volume of fuel transported under the exemption, the number of carriers who utilized the relief, and the number of individual drivers who operated under it are nowhere stated in the available source material.
The fourth concerns conclusion. The June 4, 2021 modification extended the ceiling to June 18, 2021 for the ten remaining states. The record does not contain a termination notice confirming whether the declaration ran to that date or ended before it. FMCSA’s reserved authority to terminate early is stated in the instrument; whether that authority was exercised is not resolved in the source set as published.
The record documents the regulatory relief granted; it does not document how that relief was used or how it ended.