Lynn L. Bergeson has once again been awarded a Band 1 ranking, the highest attainable, among Washington, D.C. environmental lawyers by Chambers USA Guide 2015. This is Ms. Bergeson's tenth consecutive year of being ranked by Chambers USA as one of the best lawyers in America. In the commentary accompanying her 2015 ranking, Chambers asserts "Lynn Bergeson of Bergeson & Campbell PC has developed an enviable reputation in the chemical regulation area and frequently advises on matters...
Category: General
The 15th NanoBCA D.C. Roundtable brought together leading start-ups, Fortune 500 companies, research institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and public-private partnerships as well as business leaders, investors, venture capitalists, scientists, engineers, government officials and visionaries who are driving the nanotechnology revolution. Lynn L. Bergeson presented.
In the second installment of this series, I wrote about how the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) regulates products across a manufacturing process, from feedstock to product. In this last installment, I present options for updating TSCA and the related implementing regulations to put novel, biobased chemistry on an even footing with incumbent products and processes that were grandfathered in as part of the original TSCA Inventory. The key is to find a way to level the field...
May 18, 2015
Lynn L. Bergeson, “TSCA Reform May Be Closer Than You Think,” Chemical Processing, May 18, 2015.
On April 28, 2015, the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works held a hearing to consider the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act (S. 697). Since then, S. 697 has gained additional backing from both Republicans and Democrats. These events are important because they demonstrate significant bipartisan support for reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), and suggest TSCA reform actually may be in our future.
On May 8, 2015, in El Comite Para El Bienestar De Earlimart v. EPA, a Panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit denied a petition for review filed by several groups that the court describes as “community organizations” who challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2012 approval of California State Implementation Plan (SIP) elements under the Clean Air Act (CAA), including its related approval of certain fumigant regulations. This challenge was...
May 15, 2015
Weekly Round-up of Other Biobased News
? ePURE, "UK Supreme Court ruling on air quality - reaction from The European renewable ethanol industry" ? Novozymes, "Novozymes to supply enzymes to St1 Biofuels in Finland" ? Paper Foam, "Paperfoam wins Dieline award" ? PhysOrg, "For biofuels and climate, location matters" ? Washington Examiner, "Is EPA's biofuel policy eroding the industry?" ? Bloomberg Business, "Gevo Shares Double After Airline Agrees to Purchase Biofuel" ?...
May 15, 2015
2015 BIO Rosalind Franklin Award Recipient Announced
2015 BIO Rosalind Franklin Award Recipient Announced On May 8, 2015, BIO announced that Dr. Jennifer Holgrem, CEO of LanzaTech, will receive the 2015 BIO Rosalind Franklin Award, honoring an outstanding woman in the field of industrial biotechnology. Dr. Holgrem has led LanzaTech to develop the first alternative jet fuel made from industrial waste gases and has defined the genetic blueprint of gas fermenting organisms and demonstrated that they can be engineered to produce novel, commercially...
B&C has posted an overview of the key findings in the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC) and the Green Chemistry & Commerce Council (GC3) report, Making the Business & Economic Case for Safer Chemistry.
May 15, 2015
Role Of Biomass Questioned For Clean Power Plan
In a May 8, 2015, letter, Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) requested that EPA reconsider its decision to treat biomass as having zero emissions under the proposed Clean Power Plan (Plan). The Senators point out "wood-burning power plants emit around 3,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per megawatt-hour," and would not assist in achieving the carbon reductions intended by the Plan. The letter also states: "The EPA should not approve biomass combustion as a...
The White House is reviewing EPA's proposed rules to set the 2014, 2015, and 2016 Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) requirements. The proposals are not currently publicly available, but EPA has committed to propose them by June 1, 2015, and to promulgate the 2014 and 2015 rules by November 30, 2015. EPA is required by law to issue the following year's RFS requirements by November 30 of the previous year. The interagency review of the RFS rule is occurring amid complaints that delays in...