INSIDE TSCA

Stakeholders Spar Over Effects Of Proposed TSCA Framework Changes

Environmental and industry groups are offering competing views of the expected effects of the Trump EPA’s proposed changes to the TSCA “framework” rule for evaluating the risks of existing chemicals, with environmentalists arguing the changes will result in understating risks and industry praising EPA for bringing order to a chaotic process. “EPA’s new proposal would weaken the review of toxic substances currently in use, preventing the consideration of all the ways people are exposed to these chemicals and discounting real-world...

ADAO Blasts Industry Push For Asbestos Rule Vacatur, Touts New Ban Bills

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is blasting industry groups for renewing their call to vacate the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out uses of chrysotile asbestos, arguing that such claims prove the need for a legislative ban on asbestos even as ADAO is seeking to defend the rule while arguing it is too narrow. “It is reprehensible that, after nearly a decade of work, industry is asking the Court to vacate the rule entirely. Litigation is uncertain; if the rule...

EPA Floats Proposal To Scale Back Biden-Era TSCA Framework Rule

The Trump EPA is proposing to overhaul major portions of the Biden-era rule outlining how the agency evaluates chemical risks under TSCA including eliminating a requirement to make a single, “whole chemical” risk determination and revising how the agency will consider occupational exposure controls. “In this action, EPA proposes to rescind or revise certain 2024 amendments to the procedural framework rule to effectuate the best reading of the statute and ensure that the procedural framework rule does not impede the...

Seeing High TSCA Bar, Industry Renews Call For Asbestos Rule Vacatur

Chemical manufacturers are renewing their calls for the 5th Circuit to vacate the Biden-era phaseout of the six remaining major uses of chrysotile asbestos, arguing EPA has overstepped its TSCA authority by imposing limits beyond those “necessary” to address unreasonable risks and by failing to defer to other agencies when necessary. In a joint Sept. 17 reply brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit, the industry groups argue that the Biden-era rule rewrites the Toxic Substances...

White House Completes Review Of Revised TSCA ‘Framework’ Rule

The White House has completed its pre-publication review of the Trump EPA’s draft proposed rule to replace the Biden-era “framework” rule laying out procedures for evaluating existing chemicals under TSCA, meaning the agency is poised to release the draft for public comment. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) received the reconsidered rule from EPA Aug. 4, and completed its review Sept. 18, according to OMB’s website. That represents a faster than usual process, since OMB review generally...

EPA Prioritizes Data Center-Related New Chemicals For TSCA Review

The Trump EPA is prioritizing TSCA reviews for new chemicals related to data centers and artificial intelligence (AI) projects, a shift from the Biden administration’s focus on speeding review of fossil fuel alternatives and battery components, while acknowledging the existing backlog of other new chemicals awaiting review. EPA’s Sept. 18 announcement responds to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14178, “Accelerating Federal Permitting of Data Center Infrastructure,” and follows a Sept. 15 AI roundtable at the White House, led by...

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...

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...

A Long-Term Hiring Freeze Could Add To New Chemicals Division Problems

If Trump administration officials maintain their freeze on external hiring at EPA’s chemicals office for the duration of the administration, it will further exacerbate challenges within the TSCA program, particularly the New Chemicals Division’s long-running effort to eliminate the years-long backlog of applications, a source familiar with the matter says. Any long-term continuation of the hiring freeze “means you have to cannibalize what you have before you can get something new,” the source says. The comments follow President Donald Trump’s...

5th Circuit Agrees To Extend Stay Of PCE Litigation For Another 90 Days

The 5th Circuit has granted EPA’s request to keep consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out many uses of the common solvent perchloroethylene (PCE or perc) on hold for another 90 days, despite environmentalists’ opposition and the court’s initial position that the litigation should move forward. The Sept. 12 order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit in Fabriclean Supply et al. v. EPA grants EPA’s motion to extend the stay of proceedings for...

Trump EPA Defends Appointees After Reversed Asbestos Rule Redo Plan

The Trump EPA is continuing to support two of its high-ranking appointees, general counsel Sean Donahue and chemicals appointee Lynn Dekleva, even though Administrator Lee Zeldin overturned their plan to rewrite the Biden-era TSCA ban on uses of chrysotile asbestos, forcing tougher scrutiny of some decisions. Dekleva, deputy assistant administrator in EPA’s chemicals office, “is a highly qualified, dedicated public servant, and is among the brightest minds in her field committed to upholding EPA’s mission of protecting human health and...

EPA Seeks New Stay Of CTC Litigation As It Prepares To Revise Rule

EPA is asking the 8th Circuit to place consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out uses of the solvent carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4) back in abeyance while it develops a new rule that will consider changes to workplace exposure limits, noting that none of the challengers to the rule object. “Good cause exists for this abeyance request,” EPA says in a Sept. 12 motion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit. Abeyance now would...

EPA Extends Certain TCE Compliance Deadlines Days Ahead Of Bans

EPA is extending certain compliance deadlines in the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out many uses of trichloroethylene (TCE) that it says critical industry sectors will be unable to meet, just days before the first of those deadlines for wastewater discharges and nuclear fuel manufacturing were set to take effect. EPA released Sept. 12 a pre-publication copy of a Federal Register notice describing the interim final rule, which extends the compliance deadline for the 2024 TCE risk management rule’s ban...

EPA Prepares For Peer Review Of Manufacturer-Requested D4 Evaluation

EPA is seeking scientists to serve on a panel to peer review the draft TSCA evaluation of the siloxane known as D4, one of a handful of evaluations the agency agreed to complete in response to a manufacturer request, even as officials struggle to comply with a Biden-era consent decree that set steep deadlines for completing a series of other evaluations. EPA announced Sept. 10 that it “is seeking nominations of scientific and technical experts to be considered as ad...

TCE Deadline Extension Said To Address TSCA Rule’s Wastewater Releases

The White House is reviewing a new interim final rule to extend deadlines in the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), with the extended deadlines expected to address the current rule’s prohibition on any releases of TCE to wastewater, a concern chemical manufacturers raised to the agency in a May petition. EPA sent the interim final rule titled “Trichloroethylene (TCE); Regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA); Compliance Date Extension” for pre-publication review by the White...

Zeldin Overruled Top Appointees To Reverse Asbestos Rule Redo Plan

The Trump EPA’s recent 180-degree reversal on its initial plan to rescind the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out six uses of chrysotile asbestos and instead issue new guidance on the 2024 rule, came after Administrator Lee Zeldin overruled two other senior Trump EPA appointees, a source with knowledge of the internal matter says. According to the source, after a series of emergency meetings in July, Zeldin reversed a decision by Lynn Dekleva, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Chemical...

Industry Groups Press Congress For Action On Consensus TSCA Priorities

As House Republicans prepare to unveil TSCA reform legislation, a broad alliance of industry trade groups is urging key members of Congress to further revise the law in line with new consensus priorities the groups have agreed to after appearing to resolve divisions that had split them earlier this year. The American Alliance for Innovation (AAI), representing scores of trade groups from the American Chemistry Council to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to the Household & Commercial Products Association, National...

EPA Renews Call For Court To Continue Abeyance In PCE Rule Case

EPA is urging the 5th Circuit to grant its request for another 90-day abeyance in legal challenges over the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out many uses of the common solvent perchloroethylene (PCE or perc), arguing that environmentalists who oppose the request would not be harmed by a continued stay and their arguments are faulty. EPA asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit Aug. 21 to extend its abeyance of consolidated litigation over the Toxic Substances Control Act...

Trump EPA Offers Slimmer, Delayed Regulatory Agenda For TSCA Program

The Trump administration’s newly released “spring 2025” regulatory agenda shows a significantly slimmer agenda for EPA’s TSCA program than in the Biden EPA’s final months, with most items remaining on the agenda seeing extended deadlines for action and several rules moving from the active to the “long-term actions” section of the agenda. While the Trump EPA has repeatedly sought delays in multiple court challenges to Biden-era Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) rules in order to rewrite them, only two of...

8th Circuit Prods Parties To Resume TSCA CTC Rule Suit After Pause Ends

The 8th Circuit is prodding the parties challenging the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out uses of the solvent carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4) to resume the litigation after the court’s last abeyance order expired Sept. 2 without action from any party. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit issued a Sept. 4 clerk’s order in Olin Corp. et al. v. EPA , stating the “consolidated cases are hereby removed from abeyance. The parties shall submit an amended Joint...

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