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USW Says EPA’s Asbestos Rule Reversal Rationale Makes Its Legal Case

The United Steel Workers (USW) is urging the 5th Circuit to review the Trump EPA’s rationale for its July reversal on rewriting the Biden-era rule phasing out six uses of chrysotile asbestos, arguing the statement is a “clear concession” to USW’s argument that the 2024 rule violates TSCA because it does not adequately or equally protect all workers. “[S]ince it filed its brief, EPA has publicly stated -- in agreement with USW’s arguments -- ‘that the Biden Administration’s risk management...

Utilities Should Begin Collecting Data On Emerging PFAS, Engineers Say

Environmental engineers are encouraging water systems to collect data on the presence of PFAS and other contaminants of emerging concern (CECs) that are not currently regulated, stressing that utilities’ existing treatment for certain PFAS may provide data on the detection and removal of other PFAS that could be regulated in the future. “Many utilities will be likely performing pilot testing for PFAS removal over the next year or so,” Jihyon Im, an environmental engineer with CDM Smith, said during a...

Bipartisan House Group Floats Permitting Bill ‘Framework,’ Advancing Talks

A bipartisan House group is floating an environmental permitting bill “framework” that draws provisions from pending plans addressing transmission, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and the Clean Water Act (CWA), a plan that could advance talks on the issue even as many are skeptical that lawmakers can reach a final deal. The framework , released Sept. 18 by the House Problem Solvers Caucus, a group of 49 House lawmakers -- 23 Republicans and 26 Democrats -- includes several key...

Democrats Blast EPA’s ‘Unconstitutional’ GHGRF Grant Terminations

House and Senate Democrats in a new court filing argue the Trump EPA’s termination of major clean energy and climate mitigation grants is an unconstitutional “power grab,” aiming to boost grants recipients’ appeal of an D.C. Circuit panel decision rejecting their challenge to those terminations. EPA’s “brazen actions usurped power assigned to Congress by the Constitution,” reads a Sept. 17 amicus brief signed by 40 members from both chambers. The lawmakers say they are seeking “to protect Congress’s plenary power...

In Surprise, EPA Decides To Retain Landmark Biden-Era CERCLA PFAS Rule

In a surprise move, EPA has told a federal appellate court it is planning to retain the Biden-era rule designating two legacy PFAS as “hazardous substances” under the Superfund law, clearing the way for the agency to defend the measure in a pending industry suit despite recent reports that one top EPA official advocated for the agency to oppose the rule. “EPA has reviewed the underlying rule and has decided to keep the Rule in place,” the agency says in...

Blunting Industry Fear, New Jersey Finds PFAS In Soil Below Cleanup Limits

New Jersey regulators have detected various PFAS in surface soil across the state though the concentrations were found to be below interim soil cleanup standards, effectively blunting industry fears that soil remediation standards for four PFAS might be too stringent for liable parties to attain due to the ubiquity of PFAS in the environment. “Despite the widespread occurrence of many PFAS compounds, no sample had concentrations exceeding [New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s (NJDEP)] current interim residential or non-residential” soil...

Draft TSCA D4 Evaluation Finds Risk To Workers, Seeks More Release Data

EPA’s draft TSCA risk evaluation of the siloxane known as D4 preliminarily finds that 23 uses of the chemical pose unreasonable risk to workers, the statute’s trigger for risk management rule making, but EPA also says it needs additional data to make preliminary conclusions for 18 other uses of D4 included in the evaluation’s scope. The agency Sept. 17 released its draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluation of octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), a substance used in the production of silicone...

Trump’s Energy Council Offers Industry Open-Door NEPA Permitting Policy

The White House’s National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC) is offering industry broad access to help in approving the administration’s favored projects on a schedule consistent with construction deadlines, the office’s director says, a departure from prior environmental permitting procedures that can often slow down or scuttle projects. President Donald Trump “wanted a group at the White House that could cut through the bureaucracy and get projects done,” NEDC executive director Jarrod Agen said during a recent appearance. His remarks offer...

HFC Manufacturer Asks Full D.C. Circuit To Reconsider Nondelegation Claim

A hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) manufacturer is asking the full D.C. Circuit to rehear its claim that Congress illegally delegated legislative authority to EPA in the 2020 HFC control law, detailing what it sees as faults of a unanimous panel decision that found no constitutional violations in the law’s HFC phasedown program. RMS of Georgia, also known as Choice Refrigerants, writes in a Sept. 15 petition that the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act “instructs an agency to dictate who may continue...

Environmentalists Threaten New CWA Plastic Suit After Pennsylvania Deal

Environmentalists are threatening to sue two companies over discharges of large amounts of plastic pellets in South Carolina under the Clean Water Act (CWA) and Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), just days after other groups finalized a precedent-setting CWA settlement against a company over plastic discharges into a Pennsylvania river. In a Sept. 10 notice of intent to sue , the group Congaree Riverkeeper warned Alpek Polyester USA and Eastman Chemical Company, who jointly operate a plastic plant near...

Optimistic Industry Groups Ramp Up Advocacy For PFAS Reporting Waivers

Industry representatives are optimistic that the Trump EPA will include several exemptions requested by industry in the agency’s revised PFAS reporting rule under TSCA that would ease burdens on regulated entities, but they are nevertheless ramping up their advocacy and urging officials to adopt a host of waivers. Several industry groups are already meeting -- or preparing to meet -- with White House officials reviewing EPA’s draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) proposed rule. And one lawyer said he is...

EPA Downplays Congressional Directive For GHG Reporting In Repeal Plan

EPA’s proposed rule to scrap nearly all greenhouse gas reporting for industry is brushing aside arguments that Congress directed such reporting over a decade ago, with the agency also claiming it lacks a basis for requiring “continuous” emissions tracking under its Clean Air Act (CAA) information-gathering authority. EPA’s Sept. 12 proposal also acknowledges that undoing its GHG Reporting Rule (GHGRP) could complicate implementation of federal tax credits for carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) as well as clean hydrogen, but the...

Defendant Pushes Constitutional Challenge To CWA Citizen Suit Provisions

A defendant in a Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suit case is urging a federal district court in Pennsylvania to dismiss the suit that alleges violations of the contracting company’s pollutant discharge permit, arguing in part that the law’s citizen suit provisions are an unconstitutional delegation of executive power to private citizens. W.G. Tomko Inc., the defendant in the case, filed an Aug. 26 brief in support of its motion to dismiss Center for Coalfield Justice (CCJ) v. W.G. Tomko...

House Democrat Says Tech Reforms Offer Path To Bipartisan NEPA Deal

A top House Democrat has laid out a path for a narrow bipartisan deal on reforming the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by focusing on the use of advanced technologies to speed up and streamline permitting, amid partisan sniping over President Donald Trump’s treatment of renewables and his promotion of fossil fuels. “There's a lot of bipartisan work that we can do in this space to leverage modern tools and data to improve the permitting process,” Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA),...

Newsom Weighs PFAS-Ban Bill Amid Opposition From Cookware Industry

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) is weighing whether to sign or veto a landmark bill passed by state lawmakers that would ban PFAS from five consumer product categories starting in 2028 and from cookware products beginning in 2030, amid strong opposition by numerous industry groups including the cookware manufacturing sector. If Newsom signs the legislation, California would become the largest state to ban PFAS in cookware despite arguments from manufacturers that fluoropolymers like polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), commonly known as Teflon, that...

Environmentalists Target Steel Plant Permits Amid Wider Fight With EPA

Three environmental groups are threatening to sue EPA over its failure to respond to their petitions calling for the agency to object to the air permits of two major steelmaking plants in Indiana, litigation that would open a new front against the facilities amid an ongoing fight over EPA’s delay of tougher Biden-era rules for the sector. In a notice of intent to sue (NOI) letter sent to EPA Sept. 3, a coalition of groups -- Environmental Law and Policy...

EPA’s Reg Agenda Seeks To Drive Energy ‘Dominance,’ Deregulatory Goals

The Trump administration’s first regulatory agenda since returning to the White House seeks to drive key policy priorities aimed at increasing energy production and cutting regulations, with EPA planning to roll back climate measures governing power plants and oil and gas production and expanding water discharge waivers for drilling operations, among others. The agenda offers a regulatory roadmap of sorts for implementing one of President Donald Trump’s top policy priorities: his “unleashing American energy dominance” agenda. For example, EPA’s Spring...

EPA Faces Deadline On CERCLA Rule, Investment Firm Hosts Annual PFAS Symposium

EPA faces a Sept. 17 deadline to tell the D.C. Circuit how it will proceed in litigation challenging the landmark Biden-era Superfund law designating two legacy PFAS as “hazardous substances.” Investment firm Gabelli Funds will host an annual symposium on PFAS replacement, remediation and destruction. CERCLA Rule EPA is slated to tell the D.C. Circuit on Sept. 17 how it plans to proceed in industry litigation challenging the Biden-era rule designating two legacy per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) as “hazardous...

Former Officials Warn Trump Is Gutting Environmental Enforcement Capacity

Two former top environmental enforcement officials -- one from EPA, one from the Justice Department (DOJ) -- are warning that the Trump administration has gutted the federal government’s capacity to prosecute environmental violations, resulting in a historic enforcement slowdown that is significantly threatening public health and the environment. In addition to regulatory rollbacks, enforcement policy changes and support for the fossil fuel industry, staff losses that have hollowed out enforcement divisions will damage environmental protection for decades, David Uhlmann, who...

Trump EPA Asks D.C. Circuit To Vacate Four PFAS Drinking Water Limits

The Trump EPA is urging the D.C. Circuit to vacate four of six Biden-era drinking water standards for PFAS, arguing the agency did not follow mandatory procedural requirements when it promulgated them, in an effort to quickly resolve legal questions over whether officials can follow through on their plan to withdraw the landmark limits. The Biden “EPA initially attempted to defend the Rule against forceful legal challenges raised in these petitions for review,” the Trump EPA says in a Sept...

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