All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On July 8, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) promulgated significant new use rules (SNUR) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for 13 chemical substances that were the subject of premanufacture notices (PMN). The rule includes two PMN substances, P-10-5 and P-11-339, that were the subject of TSCA Section 5(e) consent orders and whose reported chemical names include the term “carbon nanotube” (CNT) or “CNT.” EPA states that, because of a lack of...

On June 30, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it would not review the constitutionality of the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). This decision is largely viewed as a win for the California Air Resources Board, the governmental body that regulates the LCFS, and supporters of the law. On March 20, 2014, Growth Energy and the Renewable Fuels Association (RFA), which represent the ethanol industry, and the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), along with the...

On June 26, 2014, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issued a 38-page report on the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), "The Renewable Fuel Standard: Issues for 2014 and Beyond." The report examines potential compliance with the RFS through 2017 under three scenarios and evaluates the effects on food and fuel prices under each one. A copy of CBO's summary of the report is available online. A copy of the full report is available online. The report evaluated the impact on food...

On July 2, 2014, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy's Bioenergy Technology Office published in the Federal Register a "Request for Information (RFI) Regarding Integrated Biorefinery Lessons Learned and Best Practices." According to the RFI, its purpose is "to solicit feedback from industry, academia, research laboratories, government agencies, and other stakeholders on issues related to lessons learned and best practices...

On July 2, 2014, EPA issued a final rule outlining the elements of a voluntary third party quality assurance program to ensure the validity of renewable identification numbers (RIN) petroleum refiners use to confirm compliance with the annual fuel standard. Under the final rule, petroleum marketers may choose between two options to verify the validity of RINs generated between February 21, 2013, and December 31, 2014. Importantly, the final rule includes an affirmative defense for anyone except...

The Silver Nanotechnology Working Group (SNWG) was founded in 2009 as an industry-wide effort to advance the science and public understanding of the beneficial uses of silver nanoparticles in a wide-range of consumer and industrial products. It does this by fostering the collection of environmental, occupational and health, and consumer product data on silver nanotechnology. Since its founding, the focus of the SNWG has been to encourage the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other...

On June 30, 2014, the European Commission (EC) held a validation workshop to discuss the preliminary results of the study supporting the impact assessment on transparency measures for nanomaterials. As part of the workshop, the EC released the following reports: Study to Assess the Impact of Possible Legislation to Increase Transparency on Nanomaterials on the Market: Evaluation Report (second draft): This report is one of several outcomes of a study on regulatory oversight...

TSCA/FIFRA/IRIS/EPCRA Limited Space Still Available For Sustainable Futures Training Workshop: There are still spaces available for the Sustainable Futures Training workshop scheduled for August 5-7, 2014, at the George Washington University campus in Washington, D.C. Attendees at the three-day workshop will get firsthand experience with the tools, methods, and models used by the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) in its assessment of new chemicals. The workshop includes in-depth...

The growing number of rail mishaps involving oil is attracting much press attention and now regulatory attention as well. On May 7, 2014, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) issued an emergency order requiring all railroads operating trains containing bulk quantities of UN 1267, petroleum crude oil, Class 3 that either originates or is sourced from the Bakken formation in the Williston Basin (Bakken crude oil) to notify State Emergency Response Commissions (SERC) about the operation of...

On June 2, 2014, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued an ambitious and likely contentious rule to diminish significantly the United States’ contribution to greenhouse gases (GHG). The rule is proposed under the authority of the Clean Air Act (CAA) and takes direct aim at the coal industry by requiring a 30 percent reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing fossil fuel-fired power plants by 2030, using 2005 as the baseline year. This column summarizes key aspects...