By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton On April 11, 2023, a bipartisan group of legislators led by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) sent a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), urging it to strengthen the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) by maintaining the blending requirements for 2023; denying all pending Small Refinery Exemptions (SRE); eliminating proposed retroactive cuts to the renewable volume obligations (RVO); and setting RFS volumes at...
May 3, 2023
GAO Recommends Actions to Improve DOD’s Ability to Prevent the Procurement of Items Containing PFAS
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) published a report on April 26, 2023, entitled “Persistent Chemicals: Actions Needed to Improve DOD’s Ability to Prevent the Procurement of Items Containing PFAS.” GAO notes that starting April 2023, the Department of Defense (DOD) was prohibited from procuring items in four categories if they contain certain per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 includes a provision for GAO to...
On April 24, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) held a virtual public preparatory meeting for the Science Advisory Committee on Chemicals (SACC) members, ad hoc reviewers, and the public to comment on and ask questions regarding the scope and clarity of the draft charge questions to be used for the May 8-11, 2023, review of two draft documents related to cumulative risk assessment (CRA) under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). As reported in our...
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton On April 25, 2023, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that it published a new five-year strategic plan. According to APHIS, it incorporates input it received from stakeholders on the strategic framework, a summarized version of the plan that it published in June 2022. The plan includes six strategic goals that focus on working to: Protect agriculture from plant and animal...
Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health are pleased to announce the seventh annual Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) conference, “TSCA Reform -- Seven Years Later,” to occur Thursday, June 29, 2023. This complimentary virtual conference featuring speakers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and non-governmental and industry stakeholders will provide...
May 2, 2023
Lynn L. Bergeson, “EPA Can Lead or Get Out of the Way,” The Environmental Forum, May/June 2023.
A major task we face in achieving circularity is ensuring that policies remain nimble in addressing environmental and public health challenges. Our suite of laws and their regulatory implementation sometimes reflect an unhelpful resistance to circularity, expressed in policies that are indifferent or antithetical to an efficient transition to true resource economy.
On May 2, 2023, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the release of the Draft National Strategy to Prevent Plastic Pollution (Draft Strategy) for public comment. 88 Fed. Reg. 27502. EPA states in its April 21, 2023, press release that the Draft Strategy includes “ambitious actions to eliminate the release of plastic and other waste from land-based sources into the environment by 2040.” EPA released the Draft Strategy alongside a new White...
Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and the George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health are pleased to announce the seventh annual Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) conference, “TSCA Reform -- Seven Years Later,” to occur Thursday, June 29, 2023. This complimentary virtual conference featuring speakers from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and non-governmental and industry stakeholders will provide...
By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton Colorado State University (CSU) announced on April 11, 2023, that its chemists, led by Eugene Chen, University Distinguished Professor in the Department of Chemistry, have created a synthetic polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA) platform. CSU states that PHAs are a class of polymers naturally created by living microorganisms or synthetically produced from biorenewable feedstocks. While they are biodegradable in the ambient environment, they are brittle and...
During this one-hour webinar, Anna B. Lowit, Ph.D., Senior Science Advisor, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics (OPPT); Richard E. Engler, Ph.D., Director of Chemistry, B&C; and Lynn L. Bergeson, Managing Partner, B&C, discussed groundbreaking science policy initiatives in furtherance of implementation of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). As EPA advances New Approach Methodologies (NAM), cumulative risk assessment...