The Trump EPA is indicating its plans to initiate a new rulemaking to reconsider the Biden administration’s Risk Management Program (RMP) final rule, voicing support for industry and GOP state efforts to put into abeyance their ongoing legal challenges to the Biden rule.
Chemical industry groups are suing to overturn the Biden EPA’s rejection of their petition to reconsider its 2024 Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, part of a multi-pronged push by industry groups to rescind the facility-safety regulation.
Environmentalists are warning that the second Trump EPA’s expected rollback of the Biden-era Risk Management Program (RMP) rule may be vulnerable to a new round of litigation, much as it was in the president’s first term, because the administration is again “quite likely” to conduct a predetermined rulemaking process.
A coalition of environmental groups is again petitioning EPA to ban the use of hydrogen fluoride (HF) in refineries under TSCA, the latest in a series of so-far unsuccessful calls from environmentalists and federal investigators for EPA and OSHA to clamp down on the highly toxic substance that is used at dozens of facilities across the United States.
An industry coalition is urging EPA to rescind key provisions of the Biden EPA’s “misguided,” “illegal” and “unnecessary” Risk Management Program (RMP) rule, calling for officials to take immediate steps to block its implementation while launching a new rulemaking that will permanently end the “regulatory whiplash” that has characterized the policy over the last decade.
For the first time, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has publicly released detailed results of its recent investigations into 26 serious chemical incidents at major industrial facilities, a move that one industry law firm says “creates significantly increased legal and operational risks that require immediate strategic attention.”
Studies conducted for the Agriculture Department (USDA) have found only a limited association between faster slaughterhouse line speeds and increased worker injuries, prompting USDA to extend current line speed waivers until the Trump administration can decide next steps.
EPA is denying a petition from GOP states and chemical industry groups seeking reconsideration of its final risk management program (RMP) rule, a move that will restart paused litigation over the rule though the incoming Trump administration is expected to ask the court to remand the measure to revise it along the lines of its prior rulemaking.
A three-judge appellate panel is evaluating whether EPA correctly determined that it has authority to regulate rail cars as a “stationary source” under its Risk Management Program (RMP) and emergency planning rules for facility safety, questioning how it should review the agency’s interpretation since the high court eliminated Chevron deference.
Three chemical-sector groups are pressing EPA not to prioritize hydrogen fluoride (HF) -- used as a catalyst in oil refineries and other industrial contexts -- for risk evaluation under TSCA despite renewed calls from the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), saying OSHA standards and other rules already provide “comprehensive” protections.