ISSUE: RPR Top Stories

EPA Draws First TSCA Suit Over Methylene Chloride’s No-Risk Findings

A coalition of environmental and labor groups has sued EPA over its risk evaluation for methylene chloride challenging the agency’s finding of no unreasonable risk for a handful of uses, the first such lawsuit over EPA’s first final risk evaluation under TSCA section 6. “While Congress directed EPA to conduct comprehensive risk evaluations that protect the most susceptible populations, the Trump administration prepared an unlawfully narrow evaluation that ignores the ways that many people are exposed to methylene chloride,” said...

In Blow To Trump Rollbacks, Court Finds ‘Interim’ SCC Not ‘Best’ Science

A federal district judge has found that Trump administration officials arbitrarily relied on their aggressively scaled-back social cost of carbon (SCC) metric to justify a rollback of Obama-era methane standards for oil and gas equipment, a decision that could undermine efforts to scrap a host of climate mitigation policies. Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ruled July 15 that the Trump administration’s metric is “riddled with flaws,” ignores the “best available...

Biden Embraces Calls For Sweeping Environmental Justice Measures

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is embracing calls for a major governmental reorganization to elevate environmental justice (EJ) and climate change concerns, issues that are increasingly being linked to the nation’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and racial equity. As part of a series of July 14 updates to his climate and environment platform, Biden says that if he wins the Nov. 3 election he will “revise and reinvigorate” a 1994 executive order on EJ issues, including by creating...

EPA Ozone NAAQS Proposal Spurs Fight Between Health Groups, Industry

EPA has formally proposed to keep its national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) for ozone unchanged at the levels set in 2015 by the Obama administration, setting the stage for a fight between public health advocates seeking tougher limits and industry groups opposing stricter standards as the agency moves to finalize its rule by the end of the year. Administrator Andrew Wheeler signed the proposal July 13, ahead of its forthcoming publication in the Federal Register . The proposal ,...

Former Staff Fear EPA Rule On Guidance Could Hamper Chemical Reviews

A group representing former EPA staff says its supports the goal of an agency proposal governing the use of guidance in policy decisions as a way to increase transparency though the group is questioning the underlying legal authority and is warning that its strict mandatory requirements could hamper the toxics office’s chemical risk reviews. “The legal authority EPA cites for this rule, the federal Housekeeping Statute, does not provide an adequate basis for rulemaking of this nature,” writes the Environmental...

Amid Sparring Over EPA Policies, House Democrats Advance FY21 Bill

House Appropriations Committee Democrats are advancing their fiscal year 2021 spending bill for EPA after adding a new provision blocking the agency’s controversial science “transparency” rule and rejecting Republicans’ attempts to scrap existing provisions in the bill that block other Trump administration environmental policies. During a July 10 markup by the full appropriations panel, lawmakers did not alter the bill’s spending levels for EPA, which would see an increase in overall funding by roughly 3 percent from just over $9...

Flurry Of EPA Air Toxics Rule Reviews Results In Few Regulatory Changes

In a flurry of recent final actions, EPA has completed several Clean Air Act-mandated reviews of sector-specific national emissions standards for hazardous air pollutants (NESHAP) rules that largely leave air toxics risk assessments and emissions limits unchanged, but tighten certain compliance requirements and make other minor changes. EPA’s activity aims to help cut its backlog of dozens of delayed risk-and-technology reviews (RTRs), which are required under the air law eight years after EPA first issues a NESHAP setting air toxics...

Pollution Experts Fear EPA Cost-Benefit Rule Downplays Ozone Harms

Air pollution experts fear EPA’s proposed rule outlining changes to cost-benefit reviews for air policies would preclude counting a variety of important health-related benefits from emissions cuts, while exacerbating prior critiques of the agency’s recent scientific review for ozone that downplayed the certainty of such health harms. The issue surfaced during a July 1 public hearing held via teleconference on the cost-benefit plan that showcased widely divergent views on the merits of the regulation, with industry praising it as a...

As Re-Openings Loom, EPA Grapples With Large-Scale Virus Disinfection

EPA is struggling to develop chemical and other techniques to disinfect large-scale public spaces from coronavirus contamination as many states continue their plans to reopen after their shutdowns -- despite a recent slowdown in some Sun Belt states after an uptick in cases, an agency engineer told a June 30 webinar. Despite the fact that many public spaces are either in the midst of a staged process of reopening, or have plans to reopen by the end of the summer,...

EPA Revising TSCA Regulations To Speed Reviews Of New Chemicals

Faced with growing criticism from Republicans and industry groups over the slow pace of its new chemicals review program, EPA is launching a new rulemaking to revise its existing TSCA rules to speed its evaluation of the substances and improve data requirements for companies seeking approvals. While the upcoming rule is likely to draw praise from industry and GOP lawmakers, it will almost certainly intensify criticism from environmentalists and Democrats, who are concerned that the agency will further undercut requirements...

House Democrats Call On EPA To Halt, Reevaluate PM NAAQS Review

Update Appended House Democrats are calling on EPA to halt its pending rulemaking that would retain the agency’s existing suite of particulate matter (PM) ambient air limits, urging EPA to instead reevaluate the decision following the recommendations of former agency science advisers who support tougher PM limits to adequately protect public health. Separately, public health and environmental groups are seeking an extension of EPA’s imminent deadline for input on the rulemaking -- even though the Trump administration wants to...

Dunn Touts ‘Automated’ Efficiencies In Defense Of Revised TSCA Order

EPA toxics chief Alex Dunn is defending the agency’s revised model consent order for negotiating agreements with chemical companies under TSCA section 5, saying the “automated” check-the-box approach will speed the process and improve coordination within the agency, including with the enforcement and water offices. In her first public comments on the revised model TSCA order, which has drawn criticism from environmentalists, Dunn defended the agency’s decision to begin using the document in negotiations with chemical companies on the submission...

ORD Chief Seeks SAB Help On ‘Challenging,’ ‘Long-Term’ Risk Guide Update

EPA’s top political research official is asking the agency’s science advisors to assist staff in updating and crafting new chemical risk assessment guidance for the agency, saying that the project will be challenging and years-long but also necessary and overdue as some of the existing guidance documents were crafted in the 1980s. “I need to really emphasize how important it is that the agency updates all of the assessments guidance . . . some of these guidelines are over 30...

Key Republican Criticizes EPA Over Inadequate TSCA Implementation

Rep. John Shimkus (R-IL), a top House Republican and one of the lead authors of the revised toxics law, is criticizing EPA’s failure to issue orders to force additional industry data and testing of chemicals and its handling of new chemical applications, signaling bipartisan criticism over the landmark 2016 law’s implementation. “If there's one surprise, it’s that EPA has not used section 4 information gathering authority” under the Toxic Substances Control Act, Shimkus said in a June 24 keynote address...

EPA Finds Most Methylene Chloride Uses Pose ‘Unreasonable’ TSCA Risks

In a first, EPA has issued its final evaluation of the risks posed by the widely used solvent methylene chloride (MC), finding that 47 of 53 commercial, industrial and consumer uses it evaluated pose “unreasonable risks” that require regulation under the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). “Releasing the first final risk evaluation marks a key milestone in our efforts to fulfill our responsibilities for ensuring the safety of chemicals already on the market,” Alex Dunn, assistant administrator in EPA’s...

EPA 1-BP Air Toxic Listing May Trigger Tough Solvent, Dry Cleaning Rules

EPA intends to for the first time add a new chemical, n-propyl bromide, also known as 1-bromopropane (1-BP), to the list of hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) regulated under the Clean Air Act, triggering likely tougher emissions rules for the dry cleaning sector and others that make and use the substance. “The documented known or anticipated adverse health effects of 1-BP, which are based on established sound scientific principles, include carcinogenicity, reproductive toxicity, and neurotoxicity,” EPA says in a notice slated...

Judge Punts In Landmark TSCA Suit But Gives Few Clues On Any Ruling

The federal judge overseeing the landmark trial on whether fluoride is eligible for regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) may have punted any decision until after EPA reviews a new petition from the plaintiffs but Judge Edward Chen provided few clues on how he planned to eventually rule. In June 17 comments from the bench, Chen, of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, proposed that he withhold his judgement entirely until the plaintiffs can...

SAB Eyes Call To Restore Co-Benefits Focus In EPA Economic Guide

EPA’s Science Advisory Board (SAB) appears poised to recommend that the agency restore language in draft economic review guidelines that would call for explicit consideration of regulatory co-benefits and ancillary costs in regulatory cost-benefit analyses, criticizing the draft guidance for deemphasizing such analysis. The issue surfaced during a June 9 meeting of the SAB Economic Guidelines Review Panel, with several members embracing co-benefits language included in EPA’s existing guidance policy, rather than the new draft. The language in the existing...

SACC Deepens Concern Over Narrow Scope Of Draft EPA Asbestos Analysis

EPA’s science advisors are deepening their concerns over the narrow scope of the agency’s draft evaluation of asbestos raising questions during a June 8 meeting on why EPA excluded consumer uses and all but chrysotile fiber types from its evaluation, as well as over EPA’s decision to evaluate legacy uses separately. During the first day of the four-day June 8-11 meeting, members of the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) peppered EPA staff with questions on ways in which the...

2nd Circuit Vacates EPA’s TSCA Reporting Waiver For Mercury Importers

A federal appellate court has vacated EPA’s reporting waiver for importers of products that include components that contain mercury, saying the agency failed to adequately justify it under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), but the court upheld a waiver for manufacturers of such products as well as a partial waiver for large-volume manufacturers. “We cannot discern any reasoned basis for EPA to exempt importers of assembled products with mercury-added components from the Reporting Rule’s requirements,” a unanimous panel of...

Pages

Not a subscriber? Request 30 days free access to exclusive environmental policy reporting.