EPA announced Wednesday that it is delaying the reporting period for its Inventory Update Reporting requirement. It's not good news.
EPA had announced its intention to revise (pdf) the TSCA Inventory Update Rule (IUR) back in August of last year. The TSCA Inventory is the official list of chemicals in commerce, and the IUR is the regulation that requires companies to submit production and use data to EPA to ensure the Inventory accurately represents all of the chemicals out there. Determining the risks posed by chemicals in the environment is a matter of combining hazard information with exposure data. The TSCA Inventory, along the data in EPA’s Toxic Release Inventory, provide answers to the “exposure” half of that equation.
EPA's proposal was a step forward, requiring more information reporting from chemical manufacturers, more frequent updates, less information hidden from the public by confidentiality, and other improvements.
EPA sent the rule to OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs back on January 20th. OIRA then hosted at least six meetings on the issue -- five with industry representatives and just one with environmental and public health groups. The chemical industry has been bombarding the administration and congress with fallacious arguments against the updated IUR (see this useful post by Richard Denison and Allison Tracy for a rundown and explanation. In one example, industry claims small businesses will be unduly burdened, when they are in fact largely exempted).
Under Executive Order 12866, OIRA is supposed to finish review of significant rules in 90 days (with one optional 30-day extension). By my count, OIRA’s had the rule under review for 113 days. EPA was supposed to begin a new reporting period under the new rule next month. That's now been postponed indefinitely.
OMB continues to be a sluice gate to health and safety regulation, and it seems like industry’s holding the controls. The public's health -- in the form of protection from toxic chemicals -- pays the price.
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Matt Shudtz | May 13, 2011
EPA announced Wednesday that it is delaying the reporting period for its Inventory Update Reporting requirement. It’s not good news. EPA had announced its intention to revise (pdf) the TSCA Inventory Update Rule (IUR) back in August of last year. The TSCA Inventory is the official list of chemicals in commerce, and the IUR is the […]
Dan Rohlf | May 10, 2011
In an impressive effort to demonstrate that crafting bad environmental legislation knows no partisan boundaries, Democratic Senator John Tester of Montana – who recently spearheaded a successful effort to remove wolves from the endangered species list through a budget maneuver – last month introduced legislation to block the Environmental Protection Agency from regulating lead ammunition […]
Frank Ackerman | May 6, 2011
Cross-posted from Triple Crisis. Climate legislation, even in its most modest and repeatedly compromised variety, failed last year. And there won’t be a second chance with anything like the current Congress. What caused this momentous failure? Broadly speaking, there are two rival stories. It could be due to the strength of opposing or inertial forces: […]
Alexandra Klass | May 6, 2011
On Wednesday, Our Children’s Trust, an Oregon-based nonprofit, made headlines when it began filing lawsuits on behalf of children against all 50 states and several federal agencies alleging that these governmental entities have violated the common law public trust doctrine by failing to limit greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change. The claims seek […]
Kirsten Engel | May 5, 2011
States are seeking EPA approval to meet climate change-related standards through programs that the states themselves have pioneered. Greenwire reported last month that California, New York and Minnesota, as well as about a dozen power companies and advocacy groups, are urging U.S. EPA to let states meet the forthcoming New Source Performance Standards under the […]
James Goodwin | May 4, 2011
Before the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, before the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and before the Upper Big Branch mine disaster, there was the TVA coal ash spill in Kingston, Tennessee. It was at Kingston, during the early morning hours on December 22, 2008, that an earthen dam holding back a 40-acre surface […]
Rena Steinzor | May 3, 2011
This great country of ours is quite fond of its enduring myths: poor kids are able to become rich kids by working hard, the family farm feeds us a nutritious bounty, and small business is the engine that makes our economy sing. When most of us hear that musical phrase—smaaaall business—we think of the local florist, […]
William Andreen | May 2, 2011
During the past decade, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down two decisions that greatly reduced the extent of waters protected by the Clean Water Act (CWA). These cases upset the clearly articulated regulatory definition of “waters of the United States” that had been consistently applied and widely accepted as valid for many years. Not only did […]
Ben Somberg | April 29, 2011
We noted earlier this month that a U.S. Small Business Administration official had claimed that the danger of workplace noise was solved just as well with earplugs as it is with reducing the noise at its source — despite extensive research to the contrary (“Presidential Appointee at SBA Maligns OSHA’s Industrial Noise Proposal; Claims Ear […]