ISSUE: Inside TSCA

Key Senate EPW Members Hint At Priorities For Bipartisan TSCA Talks

The chair and ranking member of the Senate environment committee’s chemicals panel are signaling a desire to work together to address concerns about consumer exposure to PFAS and other harmful chemicals in any TSCA reform push, though prospects for any legislation remain dim given partisan differences and other concerns. During the Oct. 23 hearing before the environment committee’s Subcommittee on Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice, and Regulatory Oversight, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), the ranking member, asked Tracey Woodruff, a...

New Chemicals Rule Unlawfully ‘Fast-Tracks’ PBTs, Environmentalists Say

The Biden-era framework rule intended to align EPA’s procedures for evaluating risks associated with new chemical applications violates TSCA because it unlawfully “fast-tracks” approval of some persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals, resulting in harms to protected populations, environmentalists argue in their opening brief. “In promulgating the PBT Fast-Track Provision, 40 C.F.R. § 723.50(d)(2)(ii), EPA violates TSCA,” write environmental petitioners in their opening brief in consolidated litigation known as Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) et al. v. EPA ...

House Lawmakers Raise Concerns About Bipartisan TSCA Bill Prospects

Two members of a key House panel -- one Democrat, one Republican -- are raising concerns about a closing window to revise TSCA, noting that the shutdown and a toxic partisan relationship are creating more challenges to the effort, even as the Democrat says a bipartisan approach would provide the most enduring solution. Reps. Gary Palmer (R-AL), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s environment subpanel, and Jake Auchincloss (D-MA), a subcommittee member, made their remarks at the U.S...

8th Circuit Grants Indefinite Stay Of CTC Litigation As EPA ‘Reconsiders’ Rule

The 8th Circuit has agreed to EPA’s request for an indefinite abeyance of consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out uses of the solvent carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4) while the Trump administration “reconsiders” the rule, and in particular, its workplace exposure limits. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued an Oct. 20 order granting EPA’s Sept. 12 request for an extended abeyance in litigation known as Olin Corp. et al. v. EPA . “The...

PCRM Seeks TSCA Changes To Reduce Animal Testing, Boost Transparency

An animal welfare group, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), is seeking TSCA legislative changes to reduce animal testing and increase transparency about the animal tests EPA uses and orders, including a move that could align with industry and Republicans’ efforts to streamline EPA’s reviews of new chemicals. PCRM staff have spoken with congressional staff in recent weeks about their asks, following a Sept. 16 letter the group sent to chairmen and ranking members of the Senate environment committee...

Environmentalists Defend Push To Revoke FDA Phthalates Authorization

Environmentalists are defending their long-running push for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to revoke its authorization of the use of phthalates as a food additive, part of a broader campaign to have EPA and other agencies clamp down on the widely used class of plasticizer chemicals. In an Oct. 15 reply brief , Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) and other environmental and health groups argue that they have standing to sue over FDA’s denial of a petition seeking...

EPW Reschedules Chemical Regulation Hearing As House Nears TSCA Draft

The Senate environment committee has re-scheduled for next week its long-pending oversight hearing on chemicals regulation, which could offer insight into a bipartisan TSCA bill Chairman Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) recently reiterated the panel is crafting while House Republicans prepare to release a draft bill of their own. The Environment and Public Works Committee (EPW) announced Oct. 16 that the panel’s chemical safety subcommittee, chaired by Sen. John Curtis (R-UT), will hold an Oct. 23 hearing titled, “Examining the Beneficial...

Company Supports EPA Definition Of TSCA’s Practicability In PBT Lawsuit

A pallet shipping company is seeking to bolster the Trump EPA’s defense of the Biden-era TSCA rule on persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals, arguing the agency correctly balanced risk and practicability in the rule despite petitioners’ claims that the rule is unlawful because it fails to protect them from exposure to a flame-retardant chemical. iGPS Logistics LLC filed an Oct. 6 amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in consolidated litigation known as...

Industry Seeks More Time For D4 Comments Citing EPA Scope Changes

Industry groups are pressing EPA to extend the 60-day public comment on its recently proposed TSCA evaluation of the chemical known as D4, arguing EPA has inappropriately expanded the evaluation’s scope while its proposed changes to the TSCA risk evaluation framework rule further complicate the unique evaluation’s path forward. In Oct. 6 comments recently posted to EPA’s electronic docket, several companies led by the American Chemistry Council’s Silicones Environmental, Health and Safety Center (SEHSC) are urging the agency to extend...

EPA Touts Trump Improvements To Clear Chemical Risk Notification Backlog

EPA is touting “process improvements implemented by the Trump administration” that it says has allowed the agency to clear a substantial backlog of chemical risk notifications required under TSCA section 8(e), which requires chemical manufacturers to inform EPA about substances that present a “substantial risk” of injury. EPA’s chemical office announced Oct. 10 that a special team processed over 3,000 submissions, flagging 920 as “high interest” and distributing them across the agency. The backlog clearance was accomplished by a team...

Senate TSCA Bill Talks Remain ‘Very Preliminary’ As House Readies Draft

Senators are still in “very preliminary” talks on proposed legislative changes to TSCA, underscoring the slow progress on environment committee Chairman Shelley Moore Capito’s (R-WV) goal of developing a bipartisan bill to address frustrations with how EPA has implemented the statute’s 2016 changes under a whipsaw of administrations. “There's just kind of active conversations . . . trying to . . . see what folks’ red lines are, and what their asks are,” one Democratic staffer tells Inside TSCA ...

EPA Seeks New Comments On TSCA CTC Rule To Aid Reconsideration

EPA has opened a new public comment period on the Biden-era TSCA carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4) risk management rule to assist the agency as it “reconsiders” the rule and whether it should be revised, while seeking delays in ongoing legal challenge to the Biden-era rule in the 8th Circuit. The agency announced in an Oct. 9 Federal Register notice that it is opening a 30-day comment period on the CTC risk management rule, published in December 2024 under...

DTSC Finalizes Regulatory Responses Required For Spray Foam Systems

California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has finalized proposed “regulatory response” mandates for makers of certain spray polyurethane foam (SPF) systems under the state’s Safer Consumer Products (SCP) green chemistry program, including a scaled back requirement for manufacturers to fund safer alternatives. In an Oct. 7 announcement and an Oct. 6 notice of final determination , DTSC details three required regulatory response actions that manufacturers of SPF systems with unreacted methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI) must take to continue selling...

GOP Poised To Swiftly Confirm Troutman Over Democrats’ Stiff Opposition

Senate Republicans appear headed to confirm Doug Troutman to lead EPA’s chemicals office over strident objections from Democrats on the Senate environment committee due to Troutman’s industry ties, with the committee chairman also securing Troutman’s commitment to work with the committee on additional reforms to TSCA. In her opening remarks at Troutman’s Oct. 8 confirmation hearing, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, described Troutman as a “well-qualified nominee[],” adding that she supports his...

Industry Officials Debate Impact Of Trump EPA ‘Data Center’ Prioritization

Industry officials are debating whether the Trump EPA’s plan to prioritize reviews of new chemicals associated with the development of data centers will be able to make an impact on the agency’s long-backlogged TSCA pre-market review process, even as one law firm is offering pointers to companies on how to utilize the new pilot in applications. “Every administration does some prioritization exercise” with the TSCA new chemicals program, one industry source tells Inside TSCA in a recent interview. “This...

Peer Reviewers Urge Major Changes To TSCA Phthalate Drafts Despite Deadlines

EPA science advisors in a newly released peer review report are recommending multiple significant changes to improve the suite of draft TSCA phthalate analyses, including a novel cumulative analysis, while acknowledging that “many” of the committee’s recommendations will not be addressed because of EPA’s strict court-ordered deadlines. The Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals’ (SACC) Oct. 6 report praises EPA’s effort to consider cumulative risk but also questions the agency’s ability to assess the individual chemicals, which are used to make...

EPA Defends Biden PBT Rule Against Environmentalists’ Legal Challenge

The Trump EPA is defending the Biden-era TSCA rule on persistent, bioaccumulative and toxic (PBT) chemicals, arguing that it correctly met the law’s requirements as it pushes back on environmentalists’ and a tribe’s claims that the rule is unlawful because it fails to protect their members from exposure to a flame-retardant chemical. While the petitioners argue the rule failed to meet the Toxic Substances Control Act’s (TSCA) directive that EPA impose “all practicable measures” to reduce such exposures, the agency...

Judge Prods Action In Environmentalists’ TSCA New Chemicals Suit

The presiding judge in environmentalists’ long-running suit over EPA’s lack of transparency in conducting its TSCA new-chemicals reviews has ordered the parties to submit a new status report by month’s end, addressing the case’s status and the parties dispute over the materials plaintiffs argue EPA must produce as evidence in the case. Judge Loren AliKhan issued an Oct. 1 minute order directing parties in Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), et al. v. Wheeler to “file another joint status report on...

5th Circuit Again Extends Pause In 1,4-DX Suit Amid Government Shutdown

The 5th Circuit has again extended its pause of novel litigation over Biden-era revisions to the TSCA evaluation of 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX), although the government shutdown is expected to further delay the Trump EPA’s progress on its promised 6-12-month review of the revisions’ and underlying evaluation’s cancer risk analysis. Circuit Judge Jerry E. Smith of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a Sept. 30 order granting EPA’s “unopposed motion to extend the stay of proceedings for an...

EPA Poised To Shut Down TSCA Program Despite Funding From User Fees

EPA’s newly released contingency plan for the looming government shutdown excludes the TSCA program from its summary list of “significant agency activities that will continue during a lapse” in funding, indicating the program will cease operating despite the user fees EPA collects for mandated activities under TSCA sections 4, 5 and 6. The contingency plan EPA released Sept. 30 indicates that Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) activities, many already behind schedule, will only fall farther behind. These include the backlogged...

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