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On January 2, 1990, the federal government adopted 29CFR 1910.147, the Control of Hazardous Energy. The more common name for this standard is Lockout/Tagout. The premise of the standard was simple; each employee should be able to control their own safety while performing servicing or maintenance of machines and equipment. Each individual in the workplace should be trained to one of three levels of competency and only the employees trained to the level of Authorized could perform lockout.

As we enter our 18th year since that standard has been adopted, we are finding that there are still serious problems understanding the regulation, developing a solution for the standard and implementing solutions. In 2005, the most frequently cited federal OSHA standard was 29 CFR 1910.147, the Control of Hazardous Energy, and Lockout/Tagout. From October 2004 to September 2005, OSHA conducted 6622 workplace inspections, and assessed industry $46,985,059.00 in proposed fines and penalties. Fines for lockout violations totaled $2,806,026.00 or 6% of the total dollars fined. There were 3,452 citations for lockout violations with an average dollar figure of $812.00 per citation.