Risk Policy Report - 11/05/2024

Mon, 2024-11-04 13:03

Inside TSCA - 11/04/2024

Mon, 2024-11-04 12:24

Law Firms Weigh Election Fallout On EPA, ABA Eyes High Court’s Effects

Several law firms are planning events to discuss potential fallout from the Nov. 5 election, the results of which will determine the fate of a host of Biden EPA rules as well as the agency’s future regulatory path. The American Bar Association is holding its annual administrative law conference, which will include an address from the White House regulatory review chief and discussion on the effects of the Supreme Court’s recent landmark rulings. Election Fallout Although the outcome of the...

Groups Weigh Election’s Effect On Climate; CCS Permit Comments Due

Multiple groups will be weighing the implications of this week’s presidential and congressional elections on the future direction of domestic and international climate and energy policy. Democratic nominee Kamala Harris is promising to broadly continue efforts to deploy clean energy and boost domestic manufacturing, while GOP candidate Donald Trump is pledging a deregulatory agenda. Meanwhile, comments are due to EPA on a trio of carbon storage permits, while negotiators are preparing for annual United Nations climate talks later this month...

Comments Close On Draft Phthalate Review; EPA Hosts NAMs Conference

This week marks the deadline for public comments on EPA’s draft risk evaluation of the phthalate DINP -- one of the first two such reviews initiated by industry under the reformed TSCA. The agency is hosting its fourth conference on the science and regulatory use of new approach methods (NAMs) of chemical testing. Phthalates EPA is accepting comments through Nov. 4 on its draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) evaluation of di-isononyl phthalate (DINP), which would find that just three...

Industry Presses EPA For ‘Clear Benchmarks’ In TSCA Prioritization

The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is pressing EPA to set out “clear benchmarks” it will use to decide which chemicals to put through the TSCA prioritization process that leads to risk evaluation and regulation, while urging it to consider several factors in particular such as toxicity thresholds and existing occupational exposure values. “[W]e are not advocating for numerical criteria, per se, but more context around the identified information for each element and how that affects EPA’s decision-making,” ACC wrote in...

EPA backs Texas crude oil port over progressives’ objections

EPA’s Southwest Region 6 is formally recommending that the Department of Transportation’s Maritime Administration (MARAD) approve the construction of Texas GulfLink (TGL), a deepwater crude oil export facility off the coast of Brazoria County, TX, despite opposition from a range of environmental groups and progressive Democrats. The Oct. 25 recommendation follows EPA’s analysis of plans for the TGL deep-water port (DWP) under the Clean Water Act (CWA), Clean Air Act (CAA) and other laws. “EPA does not object to the...

D.C. Circuit Panel Raises Range Of Concerns Over EPA’s RFS Set Rule

Judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit pressed EPA, refiners, biofuels groups and others on EPA’s greenhouse gas, cost and species estimates justifying the renewable fuel standard (RFS) “Set” rule for 2023-2025, and explored the program’s long-term purpose but did not signal a conclusion on this fundamental point. During Nov. 1 arguments oral arguments in the consolidated case Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). v. EPA , Judges Nina Pillard, Michelle Childs and Gregory Katsas...

Landowners Push Back On DOD Effort To Dismiss AFFF MDL Tort Claims

Property owners and other entities with land neighboring military sites are pushing back on what they say are new Defense Department (DOD) arguments aimed at dismissing their tort claims in multidistrict litigation (MDL) over PFAS contamination after the judge overseeing the suit allowed rare additional briefing. In an Oct. 29 brief , the plaintiffs sought to rebut DOD claims that their litigation rights under the Clean Water Act (CWA) are preempted by the Federal Tort Claims Act’s (FTCA) Discretionary Function...

Residents Urge Maine To Continue Mitigation Of PFAS In Biosolids

Maine residents are largely praising the state agriculture department’s ongoing first-in-the-country efforts to comprehensively address PFAS contamination on farms from the land application of biosolids, urging the department to continue prohibiting the application of biosolids and to expand healthcare resources. The feedback comes in written and oral comments to Maine’s Department of Agriculture, Conservation & Forestry (DACF) on its implementation of the state’s PFAS Fund, which Gov. Janet Mills (D) established in 2022 to support farmers whose land has been...

EPA Rejects Comment Period Extensions For PFAS TRI Rule Proposal

EPA has rejected industry requests to extend the deadline for commenting on the agency’s proposed rule to significantly boost the number of PFAS required to be reported under the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI), despite appeals that the Dec. 9 deadline was too short to examine the rule’s technical aspects and its far-reaching impacts. “EPA has responded to the requests for extension it has received to date,” an EPA spokesperson told Inside PFAS Policy Oct. 31 when asked if the...

Trump’s Pledge To ‘Terminate’ IRA Spurs New Warnings From Its Backers

GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump during a New Mexico campaign stop reiterated a pledge to “immediately terminate the green new scam,” a pejorative reference to the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and other Biden administration climate policies, prompting environmentalists to attack this promise as a threat to the economy. The sparring in the closing days of the campaign underscores the high stakes of the Nov. 5 election for the IRA and other clean energy supports. But it also comes as the...

FERC Backs Developer’s Push To Overturn D.C. Circuit Pipeline Vacatur

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is supporting a developer’s push for the full D.C. Circuit to rehear a three-judge panel decision vacating the agency’s approval of a gas pipeline in New Jersey, arguing the court wrongly held that it should have determined if the project’s greenhouse gases are “significant.” The panel’s July 30 decision in New Jersey Conservation Foundation, et al. v. FERC, et al . is one of several cases that explore the agency’s mandates under the National...

Biden Administration Announces COP29 Negotiators As Election Looms

The Biden administration is announcing its delegation for the upcoming United Nations climate meeting in Azerbaijan, which is expected to focus on funding pledges for climate work in developing countries, though the tone and outcomes of the summit could be significantly influenced by the pivotal Nov. 5 presidential election. In an Oct. 31 release , the State Department announced that White House international climate chief John Podesta will lead the U.S. delegation at the Nov. 11-22 summit in Baku, Azerbaijan,...

EPA’s Final Power Plant Rule Takes Effect As Court Rejects Coal Ash Stay

A three-judge appellate panel is denying a request from a Kentucky power co-op to stay EPA’s final coal ash rule, a decision that will allow the Biden administration to implement the regulation alongside the three other power sector rules the courts have so far allowed to take effect as merits litigation proceeds. In a Nov. 1 per curiam order in City Utilities of Springfield, Missouri v. EPA, et al. , Judges Karen LeCraft Henderson, Cornelia Pillard and Justin Walker of...

Water Policy Report - 11/04/2024

Fri, 2024-11-01 16:18

EPA Finalizes PBT Rule, Extending TSCA Chemical-Phaseout Deadlines

Update Appended EPA has finalized a long-awaited rule extending compliance deadlines for Trump-era TSCA limits on two “persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic” (PBT) chemicals that trade groups have warned could shut down entire sectors if enforced quickly, though the changes will not take effect for at least two months, leaving one of the Trump rules in effect during that window. The final rule , which EPA quietly signed and posted online Oct. 31, extends for as long as 30 years...

EPA Finalizes PBT Rule, Extending TSCA Chemical-Phaseout Deadlines

Update Appended EPA has finalized a long-awaited rule extending compliance deadlines for Trump-era TSCA limits on two “persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic” (PBT) chemicals that trade groups have warned could shut down entire sectors if enforced quickly, though the changes will not take effect for at least two months, leaving one of the Trump rules in effect during that window. The final rule , which EPA quietly signed and posted online Oct. 31, extends for as long as 30 years...

Environmentalists Prepare To ‘Fight Like Hell’ If Trump Wins Second Term

Environmentalists are pledging fierce resistance against a possible second Trump administration’s efforts to scale back EPA, even as some industry attorneys are warning that Trump EPA officials would face complicated legal requirements to implement their aggressive deregulatory agenda. “Just like in the last Trump administration, we’re preparing to fight like hell” if Trump returns to the White House in January, one environmentalist says. “We will pull out all the stops and defend our environmental laws and their implementation to the...

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