Appellate judges are suggesting they may overturn a lower court ruling that limited the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) ability, as part of an accident investigation, to subpoena documents to study risks of “potential” releases of hazardous chemicals into the environment.
September 16, 2026
The Trump administration has issued a final rule that rolls back Obama-era chemical facility safety requirements even as officials previewed its legal defenses against all but certain challenges from Democratic states and environmentalists who had threatened to sue over the 2018 proposal that the agency largely codified.
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A government watchdog group is weighing a lawsuit against EPA after the agency denied its petition seeking to ban the refinery chemical hydrofluoric acid (HF) under its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and Clean Air Act authorities, with the agency saying the group failed to provide sufficient facts to support a ban.
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Thirteen Democratic state attorneys general (AGs) are citing preliminary investigation results from the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) on explosions at a Philadelphia refinery to reiterate their recent calls for EPA and the White House to “abandon” plans to roll back strict Obama-era Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety requirements.
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Patients and transplant centers are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit to review a three-judge panel decision that sidestepped a fight over deference courts give to OSHA and other agencies when it upheld a federal liver transplant policy, arguing the panel erred in finding the government’s rule interpretations to be valid.
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Industry officials are optimistic that the White House will approve a pending final EPA rule to repeal Obama-era Risk Management Plan (RMP) facility safety requirements, and an environmentalist opposed to the effort says the agency “seems intent” on finalizing the delayed rollback.
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A pending challenge to a Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) liver transplant policy in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit may be the first appellate case to test the reach of judicial deference courts grant OSHA and other agencies to interpret their regulatory authority under the high court’s recent ruling on the issue.
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The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is dropping its appeal of a federal district court’s order for the board to issue by February a final rule requiring accidental release reporting from chemical facilities, reaffirming the board’s plan released this spring to comply with the order’s timeline.
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AUSTIN, TX -- A top EPA waste official is vowing that the agency will soon send for White House pre-publication review its final rule to undo Obama-era changes that tightened facility safety risk management plan (RMP) requirements, a surprise move refuting environmentalists’ suggestions that the rollback was “dead in the water."
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A National Academies of Sciences (NAS) panel is backing the use of chemical dispersants to address oil spills but is urging federal regulators to improve their oversight of and data collection on the chemicals before the next major spill to ensure that future use of the substances does not adversely impact cleanup workers.
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