ISSUE: Inside TSCA

Former EPA Chemicals Deputy Hopes Court Addresses TSCA Risk Standard

Former EPA deputy chemicals chief David Fischer expects the 5th Circuit to vacate and remand the Biden-era TSCA risk management rule banning many uses of the common solvent methylene chloride after recent oral arguments, though he hopes the court will address how EPA should define the law’s threshold “unreasonable risk” standard. “I suspect that the 5th Circuit will vacate and remand,” Fischer, who served in the first Trump administration, tells Inside TSCA in an interview after June 3 oral...

ACC Calls On OMB To Revise TSCA ‘Framework,’ Risk Management Rules

A major chemical manufacturers’ group is calling on the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to rescind or rewrite multiple Biden-era TSCA procedural and risk management rules on solvents, as well as a user-fees rule and its update to the voluntary Design for the Environment (DfE) program. The American Chemistry Council’s (ACC) May 12 comments , recently obtained by Inside TSCA , note that the chemical manufacturing industry is one of the most heavily regulated sectors, and says...

‘Evaluating’ Biden-Era Prioritization, EPA Delays TSCA Reporting Mandate

EPA is extending by nearly a year the deadline for industry and others to report health and safety data regarding 16 chemicals that the Biden administration targeted as high priority for TSCA risk evaluation or as candidates for TSCA prioritization, underscoring a recent agency statement that it is reconsidering the prior administration’s actions. EPA released a Federal Register notice , scheduled to publish June 9, announcing that it is issuing a final rule extending the deadline to report TSCA...

8th Circuit Appears To Partially Extend Pause On TSCA CTC Rule Suit

The 8th Circuit appears to have again partially extended its pause on consolidated challenges to the Biden-era TSCA rule on the solvent carbon tetrachloride (CTC or CCl4), after the agency sought further delay because administration officials have been unable to complete their review of the rule while they have been reviewing other TSCA rules. In a June 6 order , the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit says that EPA’s “motion to hold the briefing schedule in abeyance...

EPA Drafts Find Two Phthalates Pose Multiple Risks Requiring TSCA Rules

EPA has released two more draft TSCA risk evaluations, for the phthalates dibutyl phthalate (DBP) and diethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), preliminarily finding multiple uses of the plasticizer chemicals pose unreasonable risk to human health and the environment that if finalized, will require risk management rulemaking. The agency released the documents June 4 for public comment, in accordance with a recent court-ordered deadline for the drafts’ release, according to a June 5 Federal Register notice . EPA will accept comments on...

Bonta Plans To Appeal Ruling Expected To Boost Industry’s Prop. 65 Suits

California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) is planning to appeal the recent landmark federal court ruling permanently blocking Proposition 65 cancer warnings for the food chemical acrylamide, a decision industry attorneys say will spur additional First Amendment suits against a variety of other food-related product-warning requirements. Bonta filed a June 2 notice with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California stating that he is appealing the ruling in California Chamber of Chamber (CalChamber) v. Bonta to...

EPA ‘Evaluating’ Biden-Era TSCA Prioritization, Candidate Designations

EPA is “evaluating” the Biden-era designations of five chemicals as high priority for TSCA evaluation and another group of five chemicals as candidates for prioritization, a spokesperson says, a move that counters some attorneys’ view that TSCA may not provide EPA such discretion once it has finalized prioritization. Asked whether EPA is reconsidering the five chemicals the Biden EPA announced as prioritization candidates in December 2024 and whether it has latitude to reconsider the five chemicals EPA prioritized for evaluation...

5th Circuit Doubts Key TSCA Issues In Landmark Methylene Chloride Suit

A panel of 5th Circuit judges appears skeptical of EPA’s TSCA authority to regulate workplace exposures, as well as its threshold risk finding of methylene chloride, raising the prospect that any ruling in the potentially precedent-setting case could again undercut agency efforts to regulate chemicals as the circuit did in a 1991 asbestos case. Circuit judges Patrick E. Higginbotham, Edith H. Jones and Leslie H. Southwick heard oral argument June 3 in East Fork Enterprises, et al. v. EPA ,...

Industry Coalition Urges OMB To Revise TSCA Reporting Regulations

A coalition of chemical-related companies is pressing the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to make numerous changes to TSCA reporting requirements as part of the Trump administration’s call for deregulatory recommendations, seeking to narrow or eliminate various aspects of the rules. The Ad Hoc EPCRA-TSCA Reform Coalition, represented by attorneys at Keller and Heckman, specifically calls for limiting the circumstances under which Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) section 8(c) data call-ins may occur and EPA’s use of...

CSB Renews Call For EPA To Evaluate Hydrogen Fluoride Under TSCA

The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is renewing its repeated calls for EPA to evaluate hydrogen fluoride (HF), a widely used but highly toxic catalyst, in the TSCA program, just days after the Trump administration rejected a petition from environmentalists to prioritize the substance for evaluation. CSB released May 27 its final report into “three serious chemical incidents involving toxic hydrogen fluoride (HF) at the Honeywell Performance Materials and Technologies facility in Geismar, LA. The incidents occurred...

Rejecting EPA’s Request, 5th Circuit Grants 30-Day Extension In 1,4-DX Suit

A 5th Circuit judge has extended by 30 days the court’s stay of a chemical company’s unusual challenge to Biden-era revisions to a TSCA risk evaluation of the solvent 1,4-dioxane (1,4-DX), rejecting EPA’s request for an indefinite pause while the agency “reconsiders” the evaluation and supplement. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit issued a May 30 order in Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) v. EPA granting “in part” EPA’s “unopposed motion to extend the stay . ...

Industry Withdraws TSCA Petition After EPA Delays PFAS Reporting Rule

A coalition of chemical companies has withdrawn its TSCA petition seeking to narrow the Biden-era section 8 reporting rule on PFAS, after EPA again delayed the reporting deadline and pledged to narrow the universe of entities subject to the rule’s requirements. In response to the withdrawal, EPA earlier this month “closed” its consideration of the petition, which sought to scale back the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) reporting rule. “On May 16, 2025, the Coalition withdrew its petition via email...

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...

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