This week, I sat down with my colleague Jim Aidala, a Senior Government Affairs Consultant here at the firm, to discuss 2019 and the state of industrial and agricultural chemical regulation: what is to come, what to expect, and how we can prepare for it.
We begin, of course, by looking at 2018, chiefly, the appointment and confirmation of Alexandra Dunn, the new EPA Assistant Administrator in the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, the office tasked with administering TSCA and FIFRA.
Jim fills us in on EPA’s current and projected workload and what can be expected regarding Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) deadlines. We also touch on the updated TSCA chemical Inventory, issues arising under the Endangered Species Act, and what it means to be identified as a high- or low-priority chemical under EPA’s newly implemented chemical prioritization process.
As a former Assistant Administrator of the Toxics office, Jim’s observations are always spot on and honed by his significant experience as a former Capitol Hill staffer and as a senior government affairs consultant in private practice tackling some of the most challenging science policy issues of our time.
There is a lot packed into this episode, so if you or your organization needs to know what is coming with regard to TSCA or general chemical regulation in 2019, listen up!