The Department of Justice (DOJ) has settled an enforcement action against a Texas petrochemical facility, bringing steep fines for Clean Air Act violations in a case that began with an OSHA investigation of a fatal accident and highlighting the benefits of an almost year-old DOJ policy aimed at leveraging environmental laws to impose stiffer penalties for workplace violations than OSHA would otherwise be able to win.
A coalition of builders and security firms is suing the Obama administration over its efforts to implement an executive order on weighing labor law violations in procurement decisions, arguing that OSHA guidance and an accompanying federal rule on the policy are unlawful and violate employers' constitutional protections.
A recent federal appeals court ruling striking down an OSHA policy broadening the reach of its process safety management (PSM) rule to retailers will likely force EPA to ease its proposed risk management plan (RMP) rules governing thousands of facilities in the sector because EPA relied on the vacated OSHA policy for upgrading the facilities' regulatory classification.
A federal appeals court is allowing two health groups that provided data supporting OSHA's final rule strengthening its silica standards to participate in the complex litigation challenging the rule as amici curiae supporting the agency.
Industry officials are urging OSHA to revise draft guidance documents for assisting facilities in complying with the agency's facility worker protection rule, arguing the guides inappropriately and unlawfully suggest new safety mandates for data collection or good engineering practices, though a firefighters' group is seeking to strengthen the documents.
OSHA and EPA are encouraging facilities to voluntarily conduct “root cause analysis” to identify underlying problems that may be the cause of industrial facility accidents or near accidents, suggesting the agencies are likely to require such studies in pending facility safety rules where they have already proposed or floated such approaches.
United Steelworkers (USW) is weighing a petition urging OSHA to eliminate an exemption from its facility worker safety rule after an appeals court ruling striking down the agency's 2015 memo narrowing the exemption, arguing the ruling leaves workers at risk and will slow agency efforts to address hazards at retail and other facilities.
OSHA is seeking public input on a proposed rule revising a variety of existing standards, including several for assessing potential health impacts to workers from chemical exposures and noise on the job, as part of the agency's fourth push under a 2011 executive order calling for limiting duplicative, unnecessary, or conflicting regulations.
OSHA and several industry groups are battling over whether and how broadly a federal court should block enforcement of the agency's controversial worker injury electronic reporting and recordkeeping rule, a development that could complicate the litigation as it proceeds.
Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is urging EPA to tighten its proposed rule overhauling the agency's industrial facility accident prevention program by requiring that certain facilities use inherently safer technologies (IST) such as alternative chemicals or process changes, arguing that the rule as drafted fails to adequately improve safety.
Industry attorneys expect that OSHA will challenge the recent appellate ruling that vacated its 2015 policy that subjected more fertilizer retailers to its process safety management (PSM) rule, noting that the decision limits OSHA's ability to interpret its standards, and will bolster employer challenges to enforcement actions before the agency's review commission and in courts.
Industry officials have updated a 1975 study that forms the basis of OSHA and EPA risk values to protect workers and others from cancer as a result of inhaling hexavalent chromium (Cr6), finding that the new data shows significantly lower risks than the earlier version.
EPA has extended by one month -- from Sept. 26 to Oct. 26 -- the comment deadline on its proposed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulation to align its rules on significant new uses of chemicals with OSHA standards, after industry stakeholders asked for more time to provide their input.
Striking a blow to the Obama administration's efforts to bolster facility safety, a federal appeals court has vacated OSHA's controversial 2015 policy narrowing the exemption from its process safety management (PSM) standard for retailers, finding the agency unlawfully issued the memo expanding the reach of its facility worker protection rule without public input.
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) panel preparing advice on how OSHA should bolster recordkeeping and reporting requirements for employee illnesses and injuries is wrestling with what factors to include in any broader program, including expanded considerations of the cost of injuries and illnesses, worker demographics and work conditions, such as harmful exposures.
EPA's recent assessment of the human health risks of ammonia, a substance used to produce fertilizer, detergent and other products, adopts a risk value that is far more stringent than limits that OSHA and NIOSH have published to protect workers and which industry urged EPA to adopt though it is slightly weaker than EPA's 1991 standard.
With briefing now completed, a federal court in Georgia is slated to decide a potentially landmark case that could broadly limit OSHA's facility inspection authority and sectoral emphasis programs, with the company calling OSHA's targeting of industry sectors a dragnet similar to racial profiling while the agency says existing precedent allows it to prioritize inspections.
In one of three rare rules that EPA is drafting under its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6 authorities, the agency is weighing whether to ban the use of the controversial solvent trichloroethylene (TCE) when used as a degreaser to clean various parts and components, or whether additional restrictions on such operations are sufficient to protect workers.
A coalition of fuel, manufacturing and other industry sectors is arguing that OSHA is using a worker injury reporting rule to claim “virtually unlimited authority” to craft a new enforceable process for the rule, urging a federal district court to find that the agency failed to justify its assertion of power and seeking to block enforcement of the rule.
An attorney who has pushed for stronger whistleblower protection laws is backing OSHA's recently-issued guidance for agency reviews of settlements between whistleblowers and employers, saying the updated criteria will help guard against contractual restrictions that could otherwise prevent future reporting of workplace violations.