Your Guide to Emerging Issues in Environmental Regulation and Litigation.
In response to recent Executive Orders issued by President Biden, the U.S. Environmental Protection agency recently announced that it will be changing how it evaluates chemical risk under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). These changes will affect risk evaluations going forward, as well as 10 chemicals already evaluated by the EPA under the last …
On June 29, 2021, the U.S. EPA published a final rule requiring manufacturers (including importers) of 50 specified chemical substances to report certain lists and copies of unpublished health and safety studies to EPA. 86 Fed. Reg. 34147. The EPA’s final rule was issued pursuant to Section 8(d) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) …
In a 6-3 ruling on June 25, 2021, in HollyFrontier Cheyenne Refining LLC et al. v. Renewable Fuels Association et al., the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) sided with the oil refineries in a dispute with biofuel producers. The ruling overturned a Tenth Circuit decision that voided extensions of waivers from the Renewable …
The legendary singer/songwriter Sam Cooke may have intended for his 1964 anthem, “A Change is Gonna Come,” to be a protest song to surreptitiously fuel the civil rights movement and its pursuit of social justice, but little did he know the soulful R&B melody may realize its revival in the Biden administration as the U.S. Environmental Agency’s (EPA’s) new battle cry …
After a four-year gap, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) resumed its issuance of climate change indicators reporting on Wednesday May 12, 2021. The newly released data, which used 54 separate indicators, provides the federal government’s most comprehensive and up-to-date public release of information to date and demonstrates that an ever-increasing warming trend world is making …
Recently, lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced a bill—the PFAS Action Act of 2021—that would require the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to begin regulating perfluoroalkyl and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The legislation would require the EPA to establish a national drinking water standard within two years for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and …
On April 8, 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released an updated toxicity assessment for perfluorobutane sulfuric acid (PFBS). This assessment comes as part of the EPA’s larger PFAS Action Plan, aimed to increase the amount of research and publicly available information on chemicals in the PFAS family. PFBS, which is part of the …
In early February, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updated the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) regarding its audit policy program, which is officially called, “Incentives for Self-Policing: Discovery, Disclosure, Correction and Prevention of Violations” (Audit Policy). The purpose of the Audit Policy, originally effected in 1996, is to safeguard human health and the environment by, according …
We recently wrote about the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) supplemental analysis on consumer uses of 1,4-dioxane under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Now the EPA has issued its final risk evaluation for the chemical, setting the stage for potential future regulation. 1,4-dioxane was selected in 2016 as one of the first 10 chemicals …
During the final days of the Trump administration, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD), which represents the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in environmental enforcement actions, issued a memorandum that summarizes new polices relating to Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs). SEPs are environmentally beneficial projects that settling parties had previously been allowed …