ISSUE: Inside TSCA

EPA Closes Out Last Pending TSCA Section 21 Petition Seeking Rule Changes

EPA has quietly closed out the last of a batch of TSCA section 21 “citizen’s petitions” that the agency received last spring, where various industry trade groups were seeking changes to a handful of Biden-era TSCA rules but then withdrew them without explanation. Most recently, EPA posted on its website Nov. 7 -- after Inside TSCA ’s query -- an Oct. 16 letter confirming that the American Chemistry Council (ACC) had withdrawn its May 29 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)...

EPA Delays Portions Of TSCA TCE Rule Again While Litigation Continues

EPA is extending for the fourth time the compliance deadlines for TSCA restrictions on certain critical uses of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) to preserve the status quo while waiting on a federal appeals court to respond to competing requests regarding how consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TCE risk management rule should proceed. In a Federal Register notice scheduled to publish Nov. 14, EPA says it “further postpones until [Feb. 17] the conditions imposed on each of the TSCA section...

Possible Prop. 65 Listing For Bisphenols Class Poses Compliance Challenge

Attorneys are warning companies that California’s consideration of listing the class of p,p’-bisphenols -- which include popular replacements for bisphenol-A (BPA) and bisphenol-S (BPS) in products -- as a possible reproductive toxicant under the state’s toxics-warning law Proposition 65 poses new challenges for companies. “The potential listing of all or part of the class of p,p’-bisphenol chemicals poses a significant compliance challenge, particularly for companies that have relied on switching from BPA or BPS to other compounds to maintain compliance...

As EPA’s Stay Of TSCA TCE Rule Nears End, Court Orders Further Briefing

The federal appeals court overseeing litigation on the Biden-era TSCA trichloroethylene (TCE) risk management rule has ordered additional briefing on “ripeness” issues, with answers due just days after the agency’s administrative stay on workplace safety requirements for certain uses of the solvent is set to expire. EPA in August extended for the second time the compliance deadlines for Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) restrictions on certain critical TCE uses to preserve the status quo while awaiting a response from the...

EPA Delays SACC D4 Panel Kickoff Meeting As Government Poised To Reopen

EPA is postponing the initial meeting for the advisory panel that will peer review the draft TSCA risk evaluation of the siloxane known as D4 and is extending the public comment deadline by 15 days, though it is unclear whether the delay is a partial response to industry requests or the result of the long-running government shutdown that could end this week. The agency is delaying the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) panel’s kickoff meeting to prepare for its...

EPA Delays Methylene Chloride TSCA Requirements For Non-Federal Labs

EPA is finalizing a rule that extends by 18 months a set of compliance deadlines in the Biden-era TSCA risk management rule on methylene chloride for non-federal laboratories that use the acutely toxic solvent, aiming to ease disruption in monitoring activities the labs warned the agency about. “This final rule extends the Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP) compliance dates for non-federal laboratories by an additional 18 months, aligning them with the dates required for federal laboratories and their contractors in...

EPA Alumni Press Trump EPA To Withdraw TSCA Framework Proposal

An EPA alumni group is calling on the Trump EPA to withdraw its controversial proposal to rewrite for the third time the “framework” rule that lays out procedures for crafting TSCA existing-chemical risk evaluations, arguing the draft rule would weaken future evaluations and is widely opposed, including by Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) supporters. The Environmental Protection Network (EPN) “is urging EPA to withdraw the proposal and restore a transparent, science-based review process that fully accounts for all exposure pathways...

Court Faces Complex Suit Over Inhance’s Bid To Preserve TSCA CBI Claim

A federal court is facing a complex TSCA suit over Inhance Technologies fight to prevent the public release of what it claims is confidential business information (CBI) over its controversial fluorinated plastic containers after EPA earlier this year determined some of the data could be made publicly available. Inhance has filed a summary judgment motion asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to quickly rule in its favor, arguing in part that its competitors would receive a...

Environmentalists Renew Push For EPA Record In New Chemicals Litigation

Environmentalists are renewing their push for a federal judge to resolve a dispute with EPA over the release of the administrative record in litigation challenging the agency’s opacity in TSCA new-chemicals reviews, saying EPA has produced no documents despite an August 2024 ruling that said the toxics law creates a public “right to know.” “EPA has not produced any records to the Plaintiffs,” since Judge Loren AliKhan’s August 2024 order and “there has been no change in the status of...

Industry, Conservatives Urge EPA To Reduce Methylene Chloride Rules’ Burden

Chemical manufacturers and a conservative foundation are pressing EPA in comments on a proposed renewal of data collection for the TSCA methylene chloride risk management rules to eliminate duplicative and overlapping federal workplace requirements for the chemical as well other cost burdens. The Conservative Political Action Coalition Foundation’s Center for Regulatory Freedom (CRF) “urges EPA to suspend implementation of the current” information collection request (ICR) for the two Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk management rules on methylene chloride “pending...

Auto Workers Deem TSCA New-Chemicals Review Rule Unlawfully Opaque

The United Auto Workers (UAW) is arguing that the Biden-era TSCA framework rule intended to align EPA’s procedures for evaluating risks associated with new-chemical applications is unlawfully opaque, keeping unions and their representatives out of the process, and that EPA failed to respond to unions’ comments on how to address the issue. UAW says in its opening brief in consolidated litigation known as Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) et al. v. EPA that it “joined with other Unions...

PEER’s PFAS Petition Revives Focus On Inhance As TSCA Action Slows

Environmentalists’ data quality petition asking EPA to drop statements from its website that claim a legacy PFAS -- perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) -- has been phased out of production revives their focus on the fluorinated plastics manufacturer whose containers were leaking chemicals as EPA efforts to regulate the containers under TSCA have slowed. Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) filed an Oct. 29 petition under the Information Quality Act (IQA) urging the agency to withdraw two statements contained in Q&A fact...

Soap Makers’ Group Presses Senators To Address New Chemical SNURs

Cleaning product manufacturers are calling on key members of the Senate environment committee to make “targeted changes to TSCA” to address what they describe as onerous restrictions EPA places on new chemicals, which their trade group argues limits their marketability. The American Cleaning Institute (ACI) in an Oct. 23 letter submitted to the chairmen and ranking members of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee and its chemical safety subcommittee raises longstanding industry complaints about the slow pace of...

Dekleva Says Trump EPA Did Not ‘Reverse’ Itself On TSCA Asbestos Rule

EPA deputy chemicals chief Lynn Dekleva is denying that the agency reversed its position when it decided to retain the Biden-era TSCA ban on uses of chrysotile asbestos after dropping earlier plans, first detailed by Dekleva in pending litigation, to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking to reconsider the measure. Dekleva told reporters earlier this month that while she had initially told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that the agency would reconsider the rule, officials had not, at that...

Draft TSCA Framework’s Questions Raise Legal ‘Logical Outgrowth’ Concerns

The Trump EPA’s decision to ask numerous questions about -- rather than provide definitions for -- key TSCA terms in its proposed changes to the framework rule for TSCA risk evaluations of existing chemicals is raising concerns that a final rule could be open to legal challenge under the administrative law doctrine known as “logical outgrowth.” Attorneys during an Oct. 14 webinar hosted by the law firm Wiley questioned whether a final rule could be vulnerable to legal challenge if...

Environmentalists Warn AI, NAMs Could Undercut TSCA Assessments

As EPA ramps up its use of artificial intelligence (AI) and new approach methods (NAMs) in TSCA reviews, environmentalists are warning that such methods could undercut protective risk evaluations and are urging the agency to rely on its children’s health office and advisors to continue to guide the use of such methods. In comments submitted to EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee (CHPAC) earlier this year, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and other groups raised concerns about EPA’s plan...

OCSPP Integrates 170 ORD Scientists In ‘Final’ Reorganization, Deklava Says

EPA’s reorganization of the chemicals office has gone “final,” a top official says, resulting in the integration of more than 170 scientists from the research office who are expected to bolster the office’s efforts to clear a backlog of TSCA new chemical reviews as well as other Trump administration priorities for the office. The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention’s (OCSPP) “reorganization was final on Sunday [Oct. 19]. I’m pretty excited about that,” Lynn Dekleva, deputy assistant administrator of...

Trump EPA’s TSCA Reporting Rule Likely To Narrow Scope Of PFAS Data

The proposed TSCA reporting rule that cleared White House interagency review last week is likely to target a narrower scope of information on PFAS than the existing Biden-era rule, with a top Trump EPA official saying last week that looking for every “molecule” of PFAS is not a “realistic” approach. The fiscal year 2020 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) required EPA to develop a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulation ordering manufacturers and importers to submit information on their per-...

Dekleva Notes ‘Pretty Radical’ Provisions In Draft House TSCA Legislation

The draft bill House lawmakers are crafting to revise TSCA contains some “pretty radical” language that may or not be viable, although other passages are “reasonable,” Lynn Dekleva, a top Trump EPA chemicals official, told attendees at a recent public forum on industrial chemicals regulation. “We have seen some information come from [the House] Energy and Commerce [Committee],” which is “working on bipartisan work,” Dekleva, deputy assistant administration in EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), said Oct...

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...

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