Litigation

EPA and petroleum refiners are renewing their efforts to dismiss a suit challenging the agency’s denial of a petition seeking stricter regulation of hydrogen fluoride (HF) to prevent accidental chemical releases that could harm workers or residents, charging the case is doomed because it relies on uncertain worst-case scenarios.

A three-judge panel of the 4th Circuit appeared highly skeptical at recent oral argument of South Carolina’s effort to reinstate litigation challenging OSHA’s authority to require states to match annual increases to federal OSH Act penalties, questioning in part whether the state is making new arguments on appeal.

OSHA is urging a federal district court in Texas to dismiss for a range of procedural grounds a constitutional challenge to the OSH Act brought by a pair of produce groups in the state, or, if the court decides it has jurisdiction, to find that the OSH Act contains an “intelligible principle” and is constitutional.

The Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) recently confirmed that a judicial stay of Biden-era silica standards remains in effect while the agency engages in “limited rulemaking” to reconsider the 2024 rule, although legal experts note uncertainty over MSHA’s future actions remains.

OSHA has allowed the Biden-era heat National Emphasis Program (NEP) to expire even as it remains unclear when or if the agency will finalize a national heat illness and injury standard, although legal experts note that even without the NEP, OSHA could still take enforcement action under the General Duty Clause.

The D.C. Circuit has dismissed the Labor Department’s (DOL) attempt to preserve broad authority over enforcement of mine safety standards, finding it lacks jurisdiction to hear a pair of consolidated cases on the issue because the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission (FMSHRC) has not yet issued final decisions.

Two labor unions have dropped their challenges to a Biden-era TSCA rule phasing out most uses of the solvent trichloroethylene (TCE), saying their concerns are better addressed through a planned rulemaking but that they will remain in the consolidated litigation as intervenors supporting the agency.

D.C. Circuit judges focused their questions at March 30 oral argument on case-specific issues in an oil and gas drilling specialty contractor’s challenge to an OSHA citation stemming from a 2022 accident where a pipe ruptured at a gas well in south Texas, rather than engage with the firm’s broader challenge to the General Duty Clause.

The Trump EPA is defending a Biden-era decision to exclude requirements for chemical exposure disclosures to workers from a TSCA framework rule for conducting pre-market risk reviews of new chemicals, arguing to a federal appeals court that labor unions’ push for such disclosures is outside the scope of the rule.

A Texas oil field equipment supplier is challenging the constitutionality of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission (OSHRC) after receiving OSHA citations related to the death of a subcontractor’s employee, becoming the latest company seeking to expand the Supreme Court’s 2024 Jarkesy ruling.