INSIDE TSCA

EPA, Petitioners Advance TSCA New Chemicals ‘Framework’ Suit

EPA, environmentalists and labor groups are moving forward in ongoing litigation over the Biden-era “framework” rule updating procedures for the agency’s pre-market risk reviews of new chemicals, a rare move as the Trump administration has sought to delay multiple TSCA suits to revise the underlying rules. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit issued a July 3 order adopting the briefing deadlines negotiated by the parties to advance Alaska Community Action on Toxics (ACAT) et al. v. EPA...

EPA’s Role In Workforce Protection Under TSCA Still TBD, Lawyers Say

EPA’s role in workforce regulation and enforcement under TSCA, and how it will share that role with OSHA, are still to be determined, attorneys said during a recent TSCA conference where they also predicted industry challenges to EPA’s administrative law enforcement and suggested citizen suits could shape that role. While Congress in its 2016 reforms of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) affirmed EPA’s authority to protect workers from unreasonable risks, it is still unclear what EPA’s workplace role actually...

Missed Target For TSCA ‘Framework’ Draft Raises Doubts On Other Actions

The Trump EPA has missed its self-imposed June deadline for redrafting the Biden-era “framework” rule laying out procedures for evaluating existing chemicals under TSCA, raising questions over the agency’s ability to meet many other deadlines it has promised in court filings for revising or drafting other rules and evaluations that rely on the measure. The agency has yet to release for public comment a draft of its revised version of the framework rule, which the agency’s acting chemicals chief Nancy...

Observers Debate EPA Plans To Revise TSCA Chemical Evaluations

Panelists at a recent TSCA conference offered concerns and mixed views on the Trump EPA’s plans to re-do multiple Biden-era TSCA risk management rules on existing chemicals over the next several years, noting the uncertainty such revisions bring while also pondering a more pragmatic, negotiated approach to TSCA rulemakings. Industry and environmentalist attorneys alike noted some concerns with EPA’s stated plans to revise the Biden-era TSCA risk management rules on chrysotile asbestos, methylene chloride, perchloroethylene (PCE or perc) and trichloroethylene...

Rejecting EPA’s Request, 5th Circuit Grants 90-Day Extension In 1,4-DX Suit

A 5th Circuit judge has extended by 90 days the court’s stay of a chemical company’s novel challenge to Biden-era revisions to a TSCA risk evaluation of the solvent 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX), once again rejecting EPA’s request for a longer pause to continue the agency’s reconsideration of the evaluation and supplement. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a July 1 order in Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) v. EPA granting “in part” EPA’s “unopposed motion to extend...

EPA Seeks Another Extension Of 1,4-DX Suit, Promising Faster Revisions

EPA is asking the 5th Circuit to extend its pause of novel litigation over Biden-era revisions to the TSCA evaluation of the solvent 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX), though acting chemicals chief Nancy Beck told the court the agency may not need as long to revise the chemical’s cancer assessment as previously thought. In a June 30 motion , EPA asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to again extend its stay on Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) v. EPA...

Petitioners Spar Over TCE Rule Suit Next Steps After EPA Extends Stay

Environmentalists and labor unions are sparring with battery makers over how a federal appeals court should respond to competing requests for next steps in consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TSCA rule on trichloroethylene (TCE) after EPA moved to extend a stay of the rule’s provisions governing critical uses of TCE. United Steelworkers, United Autoworkers, Center for Environmental Health, and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) sent a June 25 letter alerting the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit to EPA’s...

Environmentalists Strongly Oppose Push For Legislative TSCA Changes

Environmentalists are steadfastly opposing industry efforts to revise the 2016 reforms to TSCA, arguing not enough time has passed to know whether additional changes are needed and that administrative tweaks could address many of industry’s concerns while also questioning whether reauthorizing the fees program is necessary. Their position makes it even less likely that Senate Democrats, who were already downplaying prospects for a deal on TSCA reform, are likely to reach an agreement with Republicans. Daniel Rosenberg, director of federal...

Environmentalists Strongly Oppose Push For Legislative TSCA Changes

Environmentalists are steadfastly opposing industry efforts to revise the 2016 reforms to TSCA, arguing not enough time has passed to know whether additional changes are needed and that administrative tweaks could address many of industry’s concerns while also questioning whether reauthorizing the fees program is necessary. Their position makes it even less likely that Senate Democrats, who were already downplaying prospects for a deal on TSCA reform, are likely to reach an agreement with Republicans. Daniel Rosenberg, director of federal...

Chemical Industry Weighs Congressional Options To Protect Safer Choice

Chemical industry advocates are weighing a legislative campaign to enshrine the Safer Choice program in statute as conservatives argue for privatization -- though an industry source says EPA has backed off its threats to shutter the program. Although such considerations are still in their earliest stages, the source says such a codification could happen during the 119th Congress if sponsors step up. The potential effort comes amid widespread industry concerns that EPA could close down the program. The agency has...

EPA Plans To Speed TSCA Work While Slashing Funding, Budget Says

The Trump EPA is planning to speed TSCA chemical reviews in fiscal year 2026 even as the agency is seeking to slash the program’s budget as part of the administration’s broader goal of streamlining the workforce and reducing “duplicative, voluntary, and unnecessary work,” according to EPA’s recently released budget justification. “In FY 2026 the Agency will work to reduce backlogs in the chemical review process to provide regulatory certainty to industry, furthering the Great American Comeback and unleashing the greatness...

Beck Tempers Expectations On TSCA Implementation But Touts Trump Fixes

EPA’s acting chemicals chief Nancy Beck is warning that the agency will need more time to implement the 2016 TSCA amendments and predicting “a lot more bumps in the road in the years to come,” though she is touting the Trump administration’s reorganization of EPA and efforts to speed new chemical reviews under TSCA. “We’re definitely going to need more than nine years to fully implement” the 2016 amendments, Beck said June 25 at an annual Toxic Substances Control Act...

Environmentalists Argue Court Misread TSCA In Tossing Fluorination Suit

Environmentalists are urging a federal appeals court to revive their litigation seeking to force EPA to expedite regulation of PFAS in fluorinated plastic containers under TSCA, arguing a district court’s dismissal of the case was based on an incorrect reading of the toxics law. In their June 23 opening brief , Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) and the Center for Environmental Health (CEH) argue that EPA’s then-pending data call on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in fluorinated plastic containers...

DTSC Proposes Microplastics As Candidate For Priority SCP Program Listing

California’s toxics department is proposing to add microplastics to the “candidate chemicals” list under its Safer Consumer Products (SCP) green chemistry program, which would allow officials to identify consumer products containing or generating microplastics for future evaluation and possible regulation as “priority products.” “The science is clear: microplastic pollution poses a growing threat to our environment, our health and our planet. Adding microplastics to the Candidate Chemicals List is the first step to finding safer alternatives to these substances that...

Staff Cuts, Court-Ordered Deadlines Strain EPA’s Ability To Implement TSCA

EPA’s chemicals office is straining to carry out some TSCA functions amid President Donald Trump’s staff cuts and a heavy court-mandated risk evaluation workload, and is likely to pare back many of its non-required functions, one TSCA expert says. “There are some really significant departures that are going to make EPA’s job more difficult,” Richard Engler, director of chemistry at industry law firm Bergeson & Campbell, said at a June 23 session of the Household and Commercial Products Association’s (HCPA’s)...

EPA Narrows 1,1-DCA TSCA Evaluation, Unreasonable Risk Findings

EPA has finalized its TSCA risk evaluation of the solvent-ingredient 1,1-dichloroethane (1,1-DCA), concluding that the chemical poses unreasonable risk to the health of workers in three different sectors that must be regulated, but not to the general population, other workers, or the environment -- narrowing findings from those reached in a Biden-era draft. EPA released the 1,1-DCA evaluation June 20, in accordance with a settlement agreement that directed the agency to send the final evaluation to the Federal Register...

ADAO Opposes Pause In Asbestos Challenge As EPA Demurs On Enforcement

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is opposing EPA’s recent request to the 5th Circuit to extend its hold on consolidated litigation over the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out most uses of chrysotile asbestos so the agency can redo the rule, amid questions over whether EPA will enforce the existing rule while re-writing it. ADAO filed a June 18 opposition brief just two days after the Justice Department filed the abeyance motion on EPA’s behalf for an additional 60-days pause...

As 9th Anniversary Approaches, TSCA Program Mired In Litigation, Rewrites

As the 9th anniversary of TSCA’s reform approaches, observers are offering a grim outlook for the once-broadly bipartisan legislative reform effort that passed Congress nearly unanimously, with few accomplishments on existing chemicals as EPA’s major rules are either mired in litigation or another round of re-writes before they are finalized. “There is a real question whether EPA has the bandwidth to re-do the five risk management rules [that the Trump administration has targeted for re-write] and still keep the whole...

EPA Extends TCE Critical Use Compliance While Seeking Longer Court Stay

EPA is extending by another 60 days compliance deadlines for TSCA restrictions on certain critical uses of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) while it awaits the 3rd Circuit’s ruling on its request that the court extend abeyance in consolidated litigation over the Biden-era rule banning many TCE uses and setting strict workplace exposure limits. EPA released June 18 the pre-publication version of a Federal Register notice announcing and explaining its further postponement of those Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section...

DOD Seeks First-Time Data On Upstream TSCA Chemical ‘Critical’ Uses

The Defense Department (DOD) is seeking first-time data on critical applications that require the use of existing chemicals undergoing EPA’s TSCA section 6 risk evaluation process, seeking to head off a potential risk management rule that could restrict the use of chemicals necessary for national defense. DOD’s request for information (RFI), which is open until June 20, is likely to be the first in a series of requests as more chemicals enter the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluation...

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