Growing efforts by the Obama administration to strengthen chemical data disclosure requirements could increase companies' risks of enforcement actions or private litigation for potential Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) violations, says an industry attorney, who argues that efforts to reform TSCA could further increase companies' risk of such actions.
A bipartisan group of 42 House lawmakers is backing calls by a broad coalition of agriculture industry groups that is seeking to continue a legislative prohibition on OSHA's controversial policy narrowing its interpretation of when facilities are eligible for the agency's “retail” exemption from process safety management (PSM) rules.
Facing industry litigation and congressional criticisms, OSHA has delayed until the end of the 2016 fiscal year implementation of its controversial policy for determining threshold concentrations for when some so-called Appendix A chemicals are subject to the agency's process safety management (PSM) standard for highly hazardous chemicals.
The American Petroleum Institute (API) is urging EPA to defer to OSHA on revising rules to improve the safety of industrial facilities, and to delay updates to its own accident prevention rule until OSHA completes planned revisions to its Process Safety Management Program (PSM) standard.
A top official is offering a strong defense of the Obama administration's risk management plan (RMP) facility accident prevention program, suggesting that the proposal will not be overhauled as advocates, industry groups and others called for at a March 29 public hearing.
Chemical sector officials are upbeat on prospects for Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform legislation clearing Congress this year, even as states ramp up efforts to approve legislation that would give them more power to regulate chemicals, intensifying the patchwork of state efforts that has helped drive calls to overhaul the federal law.
OSHA has scheduled a public meeting where it will formally launch its effort to craft a separate safety guideline for the construction sector, a step the agency is taking after hearing from both home builders and labor unions that it's draft industry-wide safety guideline was confusing for the sector and required input from a special advisory panel.
After decades of work, OSHA has issued its long-awaited final rule strengthening silica exposure standards in most industries, but the measure will almost certainly face legal challenges from industry groups and their allies in Congress, who have long sought to block or soften any new requirements.
A group of industry lawyers is welcoming OSHA's recently issued “safe harbor” policy that limits employers' liability for actions uncovered under an agency-ordered rapid response investigation (RRI) but they are nevertheless urging employers to proceed cautiously, noting that the policy is not binding, requires clarification and does not protect employers in cases where “serious hazard” is discovered, among other things.
OSHA's high-priority but controversial final rule seeking to limit workers' exposure to crystalline silica dust appears to be poised for imminent release after it cleared review by the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB), usually one of the last steps before such regulations can be promulgated.
As OSHA begins a long-awaited public hearing on its proposed beryllium rule, consumer and health groups are renewing their calls for the agency to expand regulatory requirements aimed at limiting workers' exposure to the metal, such as protective gear, but the groups are divided over the proposed safety thresholds.
OSHA chief David Michaels is touting the benefits of the agency's stricter injury reporting rule after its first-year of implementation, but is warning that the many businesses that are still avoiding the rule's requirements could face increased noncompliance penalties once the agency raises its penalty amounts in an upcoming rule authorized by Congress.
Appellate court judge Merrick Garland, President Obama's pick to replace the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, is widely seen as deferential to OSHA and other agencies -- though he has ruled against OSHA in at least one high-profile enforcement action which the agency is still seeking to address.
The Justice Department (DOJ) is taking a series of steps to bolster its civil enforcement efforts against workplace violations under federal environmental laws, adding to its high-priority effort to step up criminal enforcement against workplace safety violations under the pollution control statutes.
OSHA is proposing a new interim rule establishing procedures for handling complaints from whistleblowers in the automobile sector who face unlawful retaliation, the latest in a series of steps the agency is taking to bolster protections for whistleblowers.
A Texas oil and gas drilling company is renewing its push for OSHA to promulgate, and follow, a formal process governing citizen rulemaking petitions under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA) after the agency denied its petition seeking a new safety standard that would require use of the company's proprietary technology and devices.
The Obama administration is proposing to overhaul federal risk management plan (RMP) requirements in order to impose new mandates on industrial facilities to prevent and mitigate releases of harmful chemicals, but is rejecting advocates' long-running push to mandate use of “inherently safer” processes or regulate additional substances.
Two lawyers are warning employers to expected stepped up enforcement and penalties by federal workplace safety regulators and are urging industry to review their environmental health and safety plans to ensure they comply with relevant regulatory requirements.
OSHA officials have agreed to an oil industry request to extend the comment deadline on its proposed guidance for weighting scientific and other evidence used to assess chemicals' workplace health hazards and communicate those risks, though the additional time officials have granted falls short of the industry call for a 60-day extension.
A key advisory committee is urging OSHA to strengthen its draft safety and health management guideline update, echoing calls from the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) to bolster the document's recommendations.