Blogs

On June 15, 2026, Circular Action Alliance (CAA) submitted its draft program plan (draft plan) to CalRecycle’s extended producer responsibility (EPR) program advisory board, with Chapter 9 of the draft plan revised and posted for public access on June 18, 2026. CAA was required to submit this plan under California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54), the state’s EPR law. The draft plan, which outlines how the state will achieve requirements set...

On June 29, 2026, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) published a final rule revising the technical guidelines for quantifying, reporting, and verifying the carbon intensity (CI) of agricultural commodity crops used in the production of biofuels relative to an estimated national average that were established by a Biden USDA January 2025 interim rule. 91 Fed. Reg. 39334. According to USDA, the January 2025 interim rule established guidelines for the implementation, reporting, verification,...

During a June 16, 2026, Capitol Hill press conference, U.S. Farmers and Ranchers in Action (USFRA) released a study entitled Fueling Agriculture: Biofuels as the Catalyst. Prepared by S&P Global Energy, the study notes that biofuel demand is decreasing due to vehicle efficiency gains, changing driving patterns, and increased reliance on electric vehicles. According to the study, at current blend rates of around ten percent, U.S. ethanol demand for on-road transportation fuels could fall...

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) New Approach Methodology (NAM) Use for Regulatory Application (NURA), in partnership with the International Collaboration on Cosmetics Safety (ICCS), will present a webinar series aiming to identify practical solutions for ultraviolet (UV)-filter development and testing that improve predictivity while providing animal-free assessments of sunscreens. According to NURA, sunscreen assessment has been complicated by diverse and sometimes...

The Council of the European Union (EU) announced on June 16, 2026, that it has agreed on its position on targeted amendments to health legislation that seek to boost innovation in the EU’s biotechnology sector. The European Commission (EC) drafted a directive that would amend two existing directives to streamline the rules on placing certain genetically modified microorganisms (GMM) on the market and to update the rules on organ processing to reflect certain scientific advances. The proposed...

On June 12, 2026, the California Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) announced proposed revisions to its enforcement response regulations. The initiative proposes to increase fines, revise the criteria for referring violations to enforcement, re-define violation types, and make other clarifications or amendments to enforcement procedure. The last major substantive update to the regulations took place in 2006. Purpose and Substance of Proposal DPR states that the proposed action...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will hold a webinar on June 29, 2026, at 2:00 p.m. (EDT) to provide technical assistance on the fiscal year (FY) 2026 Biotechnology Risk Assessment Research Grants (BRAG) program. The program supports the generation of new information that will help federal regulatory agencies make science-based decisions about the effects of introducing genetically engineered (GE) organisms into the environment. These GE organisms include: plants, microorganisms...

The U.S. Supreme Court issued one of the most significant pesticide law decisions in years on June 25, 2026, holding in Monsanto Co. v. Durnell that the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) expressly preempts state-law failure-to-warn claims that would require pesticide labels to include warnings beyond those required by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Court's 7-2 decision is expected to have far-reaching implications for pesticide manufacturers,...

On June 22, 2026, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a final rule conforming the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) hazardous chemical inventory reporting regulations to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) Hazard Communication Standard (HCS) amendments of 2012 and 2024. 91 Fed. Reg. 37022. EPA notes that EPCRA and its regulations rely on OSHA’s HCS for the definition of a hazardous chemical and for the categories of...

One of the most valuable aspects of convening conversations on chemical law and policy is the opportunity to hear directly from those who helped shape the laws that continue to guide regulatory decision-making today. During the Environmental Law Institute’s recent TSCA at 10 event, co-hosted by Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health, former U.S. Senator Tom Udall offered precisely that perspective. As one of the architects of...