Former EPA chemicals chief Steve Owens used his first public meeting as acting chief of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) to announce a slate of transparency initiatives for the independent agency, including publication of accidental-release reporting data it has been gathering since 2020.
September 16, 2026
Petrochemical and other industry groups are urging the White House not to tighten mandates under EPA’s risk management plan (RMP) program that requires facilities using very hazardous substances to follow plans to reduce risk of dangerous releases, as the agency moves toward reviving Obama-era policies that the Trump administration rescinded.
Date:
OSHA has published a new round of regulatory interpretation letters, providing new readings of its standards governing permit-required confined spaces (PRCS), storage of compressed-gas cylinders and approved lifting devices for working with electrical transformers, each in response to separate requests for clarification from various employers.
Date:
OSHA is urging Amazon and other companies to review their severe-weather emergency procedures and make improvements to further protect workers in such situations, following an investigation in the aftermath of a December tornado in Illinois that killed six contractors with the retail giant.
Date:
A group of 31 House and Senate Democrats is stepping up pressure on EPA to consider climate change impacts in its upcoming risk management plan (RMP) facility safety rule, arguing that hazards such as more frequent extreme weather will act as a “threat multiplier” for chemical releases and other disasters the rule is meant to prevent or mitigate.
Date:
Chemical industry safety groups are pushing back against advocates’ calls for EPA to expand its Risk Management Plan (RMP) chemical facility safety rule to include the substance ammonium nitrate and to account for climate change impacts, charging that such changes would be statutorily unworkable, redundant and could worsen supply-chain issues.
Date:
Environmentalists are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “act now” to expand its chemical facility safety rule, particularly to include ammonium nitrate, arguing that a recent fire at a North Carolina fertilizer plant serves as a “wake up call” for the need to bolster protections against future disasters.
Date:
Katherine Lemos, chair of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), said at a recent meeting that she would delay votes on “the mounting number of recommendations” before the board until its two new members who won Senate confirmation in December are formally sworn in -- a step she said could come as soon as this week.
Date:
OSHA has quietly resumed development of an emergency response standard intended to bolster protections for first responders after pausing the process late in the Obama administration, but stakeholders are warning that the eventual rule may exclude much of the sector as it is dominated by public-sector and volunteer workers outside OSHA’s purview.
Date:
The Senate has confirmed by voice vote two of President Joe Biden’s three nominees to the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB), moving the panel, which investigates industrial incidents and advises OSHA and other agencies, closer to full strength after it spent more than a year with a single member.
Date: