A coalition of labor groups alongside environmentalists is reiterating its calls for new or revamped semiconductor facilities to commit to environmental and safety measures, including limiting PFAS exposures, as the Commerce Department begins awarding funds under a new program aimed at rebuilding the domestic semiconductor industry.
September 16, 2026
Republican senators at a July 29 hearing suggested President Joe Biden’s three nominees to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) appear to lack the qualifications to investigate chemical industrial accidents, echoing industry concerns that they have no specific experience in the field and potentially foreshadowing a confirmation battle.
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The waste management industry is cautioning EPA on its plans to make environmental justice (EJ) a key focus in expected revisions to a Trump-era chemical facility safety rule, warning that if the agency expands the rule to incorporate EJ considerations, then it must find a balance to ease burdens on businesses.
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Environmental, labor and other groups are pushing to overhaul the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) by rebuilding its investigative capacity to better protect workers and by making reform of OSHA’s process safety rule and EPA chemical facility regulations its “top advocacy priority,” among other measures.
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Environmentalists and industry groups are starting to draw battle lines over how or whether the Biden administration should revise the Trump-era rule governing chemical facility-safety requirements, with environmentalists urging officials to restore and strengthen the Obama-era rule while industry is arguing for retaining the Trump rule.
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EPA’s top waste official is promising that the agency’s plan to revise the Trump-era rule setting safety mandates for chemical facilities will require that industry provides the “maximum protection possible” and will make environmental justice a key focus, bolstering environmental groups that have pushed for such approaches.
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Chemical industry groups and other sectors are looking to Congress to reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) chemical facility safety program before its looming July 23 expiration, although one industry source says it is unlikely that a reauthorization bill would include any proposed policy revisions to the program.
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House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MS) says a just-released Government Accountability Office (GAO) report that calls for strengthening cybersecurity protocols in a federal chemical facility safety program underscore what he says is a need to reauthorize an enhanced versions of the program.
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EPA is urging a federal appeals court to reject environmentalists’ request to stay litigation challenging its rollback of Obama-era chemical disaster safety mandates as the agency weighs their reconsideration petitions, arguing a stay runs counter to the Clean Air Act (CAA) even if petitions for rule reconsideration are pending.
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As they seek to stall legal challenges, critics of EPA’s rule rolling back Obama-era chemical disaster safety mandates are urging the agency to reconsider the measure, arguing in administrative petitions that officials “cherry pick[ed]” new data, ignored significant continuing chemical accidents and relied on new rationales.
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