All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On April 29, 2013, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) titled “Toxic Substances: EPA has Increased Efforts to Assess and Control Chemicals but Could Strengthen Its Approach.” The report is available at www.gao.gov/products/GAO-13-249. The GAO has long faulted the EPA’s chemicals management program. In 2005, GAO reported that the EPA failed to use its Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)...

James V. Aidala was quoted in the April 30, 2013 Pesticide and Chemical Policy Daily News Alert article regarding the European Commission’s decision to more tightly restrict use of three neonicotinoids: ” ‘The pressure on EPA will increase’ as a result of the European restrictions, says James Aidala, senior government consultant with Bergeson & Campbell. But whether there will be results remains to be seen. Looking ahead, Aidala and others say they do not see EPA...

On April 29, 2013, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report entitled Toxic Substances: EPA Has Increased Efforts to Assess and Control Chemicals but Could Strengthen Its Approach, which provides the results of a performance audit conducted by GAO from December 2011 to March 2013. GAO reviewed the extent to which: (1) the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made progress implementing its new approach for managing toxic chemicals with the goal of ensuring...

On April 30, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Design for the Environment (DfE) announced the availability of the final report entitled Application of Life-Cycle Assessment to Nanoscale Technology: Lithium-ion Batteries for Electric Vehicles....

As reported in our April 11, 2013, memorandum, on April 10, 2013, Senator Frank R. Lautenberg (D-NJ) reintroduced the Safe Chemicals Act of 2013 (S. 696) (SCA 2013), which would reform the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Senator Lautenberg’s press release noted that the bill is identical to the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011 (S. 847) (SCA 2011), which was reported favorably out of the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee on a party-line...

Timothy D. Backstrom was quoted in the April 26, 2013 issue of Pesticide & Chemical Policy: “ ‘This ruling is important for EPA and industry because it disciplines potential plaintiffs into making their allegations about failure to consult in conjunction with a specific registration action, rather than some general notion EPA has ongoing discretionary control over pesticide registrations,’ says Timothy Backstrom, an attorney in the D.C. office of Bergeson & Campbell P.C....

The April 26, 2013, edition of USA Today featured commentary from Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. Managing Partner Lynn L. Bergeson regarding the release this week by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) of the Current Intelligence Bulletin (CIB) 65 Occupational Exposure to Carbon Nanotubes and Nanofibers: “The industry has been extremely cautious and set high standards for itself, says Lynn Bergeson, who works with the NanoBusiness Commercialization Association, an...

The European Commission (EC) published Regulation 348/2013 on April 17, 2013, that adds eight substances to Annex XIV of EU Regulation 1907/2006 on the Registration, Evaluation, Authorization and Restriction of Chemicals (REACH), commonly referred to as the Authorization List. The notice can be found online. The substances are: Chemical Name CAS Number EC Number Last Application Date Sunset Date Trichloroethylene 79-01-6 201-167-4 October 21, 2014 April 21, 2016 Chromium trioxide 1333-82-0...

In a decision with enormous implications for pesticide registrants, on April 22, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a complaint in Center for Biological Diversity, et al. v. EPA, a case often referred to as the “Mega-ESA” case. In this suit, the plaintiffs asserted that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) improperly failed to initiate or to reinitiate consultation under Endangered Species Act (ESA) Section 7(a)(2) for 382...

On April 18, 2013, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for eight chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN) P-11-327, P-11-328, P-11-329, P-11-330, P-11-331, P-11-332, P-12-298, and P-12-299, the first six of which are renewable, biobased chemical substances manufactured by KiOR, Inc. This memorandum explains why the proposed SNURs for the biobased chemical...