INSIDE TSCA

EPA Asks Courts To Extend Stays While Revising 1,4-Dioxane, TCE Analyses

EPA is asking two appeals courts to pause indefinitely litigation over Biden-era revisions to the TSCA evaluation of 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX) and the prior administration’s TSCA rule banning many uses of trichloroethylene (TCE) while the agency revises the contested actions, following a similar request in a third suit over another solvent rule. In a May 28 motion , EPA asks the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit to extend the stay on novel litigation known as Union Carbide Corporation...

Texas Group Petitions EPA To Re-Write Biden-Era TSCA ‘Framework’ Rule

A Texas non-profit is petitioning EPA to re-write the Biden-era “framework” rule governing the agency’s TSCA evaluations of existing chemicals, arguing ahead of the Trump administration’s plan to propose a replacement rule next month that the Biden EPA’s approach is too broad, inconsistent with the statute and results in overly strict evaluations. The Center for Environmental Accountability (CEA), a non-profit run by a former Justice Department attorney who also previously worked for Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), filed a May 15...

Industry, Environmentalists Spar Over ‘Live’ Issues In Methylene Chloride Case

Industry and environmentalists are sparring over what the 5th Circuit can actually consider at upcoming oral argument in consolidated litigation over EPA’s TSCA risk management rule on methylene chloride in the wake of the Trump EPA’s recent announcement that it will no longer defend two key aspects of the Biden-era rule. In a recent filing, industry is questioning whether EPA can still defend some aspects of the rule, noting the intertwined nature of the components EPA says it is reassessing...

5th Circuit Grants EPA Limited Extension Of PCE Suit Following Opposition

The 5th Circuit is extending by 90 days its stay of consolidated litigation challenging the Biden-era TSCA rule restricting uses of perchloroethylene (PCE or perc), rejecting EPA’s request for an indefinite pause while the agency rewrites the rule after some industry parties opposed such an unlimited stay. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a May 23 order in FabriClean Supply, et al. v. EPA denying EPA’s “opposed motion to extend the stay of proceedings indefinitely...

EPW Democrats Noncommittal On Status Of Congressional TSCA Reform

Senate environment committee Democrats are taking a cautious posture on industry efforts to make targeted changes to 2016 revisions to TSCA amid Republicans’ statements that any revisions must be made on a bipartisan basis as they seek to re-authorize TSCA user fees that are set to expire in 2026. While Republican Senate and House environment committee staffers last month at an industry conference optimistically described initial efforts to craft targeted, bipartisan changes to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Democrats...

EPA Proposes To Delay Methylene Chloride Workplace Protections In Labs

EPA is proposing a new rule that would delay by 18 months the TSCA workplace protections from methylene chloride in non-federal labs, the first such exemption from the Biden-era rule that largely took effect earlier this month even as it faces legal challenges before the 5th Circuit. EPA released late May 20 a pre-publication version of a proposed rule seeking to “extend by 18 months the Workplace Chemical Protection Program (WCPP) and the associated recordkeeping compliance dates for laboratories that...

Companies Oppose Further Delay In PCE Litigation As EPA Revises Rule

Companies that are challenging the Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out many uses of the common solvent perchloroethylene (PCE or perc) are opposing the agency’s request to further delay the suit while EPA revises the rule, arguing the existing rule’s strict requirements will take effect while EPA is rewriting the rule. Three petitioners in the litigation, Fabriclean Supply, Technical Chemical Company, and Olin Corp., acknowledge in their May 20 brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit that...

OCSPP To Use AI To Speed TSCA New Chemical Approvals, Zeldin Says

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin told members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee that the agency’s chemical office will use artificial intelligence (AI) to help clear backlogs in TSCA new chemical approvals, a long-time concern for the administrator, lawmakers from both parties and industry groups. The Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention’s (OCSPP’s) struggles to issue decisions on new chemical approvals within the statutory 90-day deadline are partially the result of “outdated technology,” Zeldin told the committee at a...

Academics Seek ‘Extensive Revisions’ To Draft TSCA DCHP Evaluation

A group of academic scientists is blasting EPA’s draft TSCA evaluation of dicyclohexyl phthalate (DCHP), a plasticizer chemical, arguing that the draft evaluation makes unscientific assumptions that underestimate the chemical’s risks to human health and, as such, requires extensive revision. “In the DCHP Draft Risk Evaluation, EPA has failed to incorporate the best available science and makes a number of scientifically-unsupported assumptions,” state May 9 comments from a score of scientists associated with the Program on Reproductive Health and the...

Judge Consolidates FOIA Cases Over Inhance’s Fluorination Process

A federal district court judge has granted environmentalists’ request to consolidate their Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) suit seeking data about Inhance Technologies’ plastic fluorination process with a similar suit the company filed seeking to prevent EPA from releasing what it contends is confidential information under TSCA. Chief Judge James E. Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia agreed to consolidate Inhance Technologies LLC v. Zeldin with Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) et al....

Trump EPA Staffing Plan May Not Address TSCA Chemical Review Backlog

The Trump EPA’s plan to shift some 130 scientists from EPA’s research office to its chemicals office may not be sufficient to address the longstanding backlog of TSCA new chemicals reviews, an industry law and policy firm says, suggesting the agency or Congress still needs to revisit key statutory interpretations of the toxics law to address the issue. “Allocation of staff with the right expertise -- toxicologists, chemists, industrial hygienists -- is an attempt to help with the review of...

EPA Denies ‘Deficient’ TSCA Petition To Ban Hydrogen Fluoride At Refineries

EPA is denying environmentalists’ TSCA petition asking the agency to ban the use of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in refineries, with acting chemicals chief Nancy Beck calling the petition “deficient” and its arguments inconsistent with EPA’s longstanding policy that it cannot evaluate, and thus regulate, accidental chemical releases of disasters under the reformed TSCA. “The petition’s request to initiate a proceeding for the issuance of a rule under TSCA section 6(a) is deficient. While the petition can point to historical incidents...

State Actions On Chemicals May Surge Under Trump Deregulatory Push

Despite a push by some industry sectors for EPA to use TSCA to preempt state action on PFAS and other chemicals, legal and other experts say the Trump administration’s deregulatory focus is likely to drive increased state action, noting industry does not have a unified voice on the issue. “This is almost inevitable with a federal deregulatory effort, the pendulum swings to states. Many states are already examining options,” Karyn Schmidt, principal at Squire Patton Boggs, said during a recent...

Companies Petition EPA To Reduce Worker Exposure Standard In TCE Rule

Battery and chemical manufacturers are petitioning EPA to reduce the Biden-era workplace safety standards set in the agency’s 2024 TSCA risk management rule on the common solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), as well as further extending a 20-year phaseout period for one company’s use of TCE. The petitions’ submission comes on the heels of EPA’s March 21 announcement that it was partially extending by 90 days the complete regulatory freeze placed on implementing the TCE rule as part of the transition process...

Tariffs May Stymie Safer Alternatives, Undercutting EPA’s TSCA Reviews

President Donald Trump’s tariff policies are raising concerns in the chemical industry about the cost and availability of safer chemical alternatives, key issues that EPA is required to consider in its TSCA risk management efforts though industry officials argue the agency has not adequately considered such issues so far. “One of the things that's really interesting in the evolution of TSCA . . . and chemicals management writ large, is that there is really understanding alternatives to chemicals, where those...

Future Of Novel New ORD Chemical Tool In Doubt Amid BOSC Uncertainty

The future of a promising new assessment product from EPA’s Office of Research and Development (ORD) -- whose acting chief predicted it “could nearly triple” the number of chemicals for which EPA has risk values -- is in doubt, its peer review stalled by uncertainty over the future of an advisory committee that may never meet again. A subpanel of EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC) met Jan. 16-17 , just days before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, to begin their...

EPA Drops Defense Of Key Issues In Methylene Chloride Rule Challenge

The Trump EPA has informed the 5th Circuit that it is dropping its defense of two key issues in a consolidated challenge to the agency’s TSCA risk management rule for methylene chloride, noting the issues are the subject of the agency’s “framework” rule that is being revised. “EPA is currently reconsidering two statutory issues implicated in this litigation as part of new rulemaking” and thus, the agency “hereby withdraws those portions of its brief and EPA will not defend its...

EPA Seeks To Extend PCE Litigation Stay Amid Rule Revision Plans

EPA is asking the 5th Circuit to keep on hold consolidated litigation challenging the Biden-era TSCA rule restricting perchloroethylene (PCE or perc) while the Trump administration develops a revised version of the rule that reconsiders an exposure limit used to inform risk management needs. During the abeyance, the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP) “intends to reconsider the PCE Rule through notice-and-comment rulemaking, including but not limited to the use of the Existing Chemical Exposure Limit (ECEL) of...

EPA Delay Of TSCA Reporting Rule Opens Door For Reconsideration

EPA’s decision to delay the reporting period for companies to submit information under TSCA about their PFAS uses gives the agency more time to consider possible changes to the contested Biden-era rule after an industry coalition argued the rule fails to align with the best reading of the toxics law and urged the agency to withdraw and repropose it. The driver for the delay in the start of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reporting rule on uses of per-...

Chemical Sector Argues Biden-Era PFAS Reporting Rule Contrary To TSCA

A coalition of chemical companies is arguing a Biden-era TSCA reporting rule for PFAS fails to align with the best reading of the toxics law and is urging the Trump administration in a formal petition to withdraw the rule and repropose it in a significantly narrower form. The May 2 petition , from a coalition of anonymous companies, comes just days after Administrator Lee Zeldin signaled the agency would seek to scale back the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reporting...

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