The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) proposed accidental chemical release rule is drawing competing criticisms, with environmentalists and other advocacy groups saying it weakens reporting mandates to the point of being “useless” while industry entities claim it risks subjecting companies to “inappropriate enforcement.”
The United Steelworkers (USW) is joining an environmental coalition in challenging EPA’s rollback of the Obama-era chemical facility safety rule, contending the agency “capitulated to industry demands” by eliminating key provisions in the rule that would prevent foreseeable catastrophic accidents.
A coalition of environmentalists has filed suit against EPA’s rollback of an Obama-era regulation tightening facility safety mandates on the same day the measure was promulgated, arguing the Trump administration has removed nearly all disaster-prevention measures and weakened many of the other protections that were in the 2017 rule.
A new ad hoc coalition of companies is preparing to challenge the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board’s (CSB) recent plan requiring industrial facilities to quickly report certain accidental chemicals releases, charging, among other things, that the proposal is burdensome, duplicative and overly broad.
EPA is facing likely challenges over its rule rolling back Obama-era chemical facility safety requirements, with early signs pointing to the parties battling over the adequacy of the agency’s legal justifications, including its claim that the original rule failed to sufficiently weigh an arson finding at a key industrial incident and its cost-benefit analysis.
The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is proposing a rule that would require industrial facilities to quickly report to the CSB certain accidental chemical releases, a measure that when finalized could fill in gaps left by the Trump EPA’s rule rolling back the agency’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) program.
A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court ruling that blocked the Chemical Safety Board (CSB) from enforcing subpoenas related to “potential” releases, with the three-judge panel finding the board’s reach includes the power to subpoena documents to examine the “potential harm” stemming from an industrial accident.
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.
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.
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.