EPA, chemical manufacturers, and GOP-led states are urging a federal appellate court to reject environmentalists' request to compel the agency to quickly implement an Obama-era update to the agency's facility accident prevention rule, arguing petitioners have failed to show the rare move is needed and that a prior RMP rule reduces risks.
A federal appellate court has withdrawn its order striking down the Trump EPA's delay of an Obama-era rule tightening facility safety requirements, saying it “inadvertently” issued its mandate, a procedural step finalizing its ruling, following environmentalists' request and will give EPA and other litigants one day to oppose advocates' request.
Environmentalists and Democratic-led states are threatening to sue EPA if the agency does not drop its plan to roll back the Obama-era rule strengthening the agency's facility accident prevention program, citing the recent appellate ruling vacating EPA's measure delaying the rule's implementation.
Environmental and community petitioners are urging an appellate court that struck down the Trump administration's delay of the Obama-era facility accident preventation rule to quickly finalize its ruling, arguing that continued delay poses risks to millions, and that EPA is unlikely to prevail in any future appeal.
Environmentalists and industry attorneys say the appellate court ruling vacating the Trump administration's delay of the Obama-era facility safety rule sets a high bar for EPA's ongoing effort to revise the regulation, given the judges' emphasis on EPA's Clean Air Act duty to prevent disasters and failure to show the delay was consistent with increased safety.
Appellate judges have scrapped former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's rule delaying by almost two years implementation of Obama-era facility safety requirements after finding the delay made a “mockery” of Clean Air Act mandates, the latest in a string of legal losses for the agency in suits filed over Pruitt delays of Obama EPA policies.
Democratic lawmakers are urging the Trump administration to withdraw a proposed rule seeking to scrap most requirements of an Obama-era final rule strengthening EPA's facility accident prevention program, arguing the rollback would increase facility risks that disproportionately harm minority and low-income communities.
The Government Accountability Office (GAO) says that first responders may not have adequate information to help minimize their safety risks when responding to incidents at chemical facilities, backing Democrats' recent calls to include data sharing provisions included in a now-stalled Obama-era EPA rule in the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) chemical facility safety program.
White House officials reviewing EPA's draft proposal gutting the Obama-era update to the agency's facility accident prevention program sought to bolster the basis for the agency's rollback, backing industry arguments that the update was unnecessary and that rolling it back would provide added benefits by improving facility safety.
A proposed EPA settlement requiring a Missouri-based agricultural products company to perform third-party audits to prevent facility accidents undermines the Trump administration's roll back of equivalent Obama-era policies in the agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) rule, environmentalists say.