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Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®), its global consulting affiliate The Acta Group (Acta®), and consortia management affiliate B&C® Consortia Management, L.L.C. (BCCM) are pleased to share with you our 2025 Forecast. For all the reasons you might imagine, our seasoned team was especially challenged this year in speculating on what to expect in 2025 regarding global industrial, agricultural, and biocidal chemical regulatory and policy initiatives. Given the European Parliamentary...

Contrary to popular opinion, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement activity under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) has been trending upward over the last couple of years. As noted in our earlier advisory memorandum on enforcement activity under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), although most parties subject to TSCA inspections receive a “boilerplate” letter, FIFRA enforcement actions tend to be more heterogeneous....

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on September 3, 2021, that it intends to initiate a new rulemaking and anticipates proposing new rules for five persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic (PBT) chemicals that are the subject of final risk management rules under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). Additionally, and importantly, EPA is extending the compliance dates for the prohibitions on processing and distribution and the associated recordkeeping requirements of one of...

The Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) issued memorandum M-20-31 on August 31, 2020, on the implementation of Section 6 of Executive Order (EO) 13924, “Executive Order on Regulatory Relief to Support Economic Recovery.” Section 6 of the EO directs the “heads of all agencies” to “consider the principles of fairness in administrative enforcement and adjudication” enumerated in the EO and to “revise their procedures...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a memorandum on June 29, 2020, announcing an “addendum on termination” to its March 26, 2020, COVID-19 temporary enforcement policy. The memorandum notes that as states and businesses begin to re-open, there will be a period of adjustment as regulated entities plan how to comply with environmental legal obligations and with public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and other agencies...

In a recent Bergeson & Campbell, P.C. (B&C®) advisory memorandum, we noted that enforcement activity under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) has been increasing during the last couple of years. That memorandum provides guidance to TSCA stakeholders on how to respond to a typical U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) TSCA inspection letter, and notes that it is often unclear why a particular manufacturer...

Federal enforcement of chemical product laws is alive and well, despite a broadly held misconception to the contrary. We have seen over the past 18 months or so an uptick in federal enforcement under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) and the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). We write to alert you to this fact and focus here on TSCA enforcement, as we believe we will see this trend continue in 2020. We will devote a second client alert to FIFRA enforcement....

On September 3, 2019, Earthjustice filed with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) a notice of intent (NOI) to sue EPA under Section 20(a)(2) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for “EPA’s repeated and ongoing failures to comply with TSCA’s nondiscretionary mandates to disclose to the public information about new chemical substances reviewed by EPA.” According to Earthjustice, EPA “routinely fails to disclose” certain information regarding the submission...

On January 28, 2019, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published its Year in Review: 2018 (YIR). The YIR lists the following accomplishments: Issued major proposals, including the Affordable Clean Energy Rule, the Safer Affordable Fuel-Efficient (SAFE) Vehicles Rule, and the new waters of the U.S. definition;  Provided greater regulatory certainty to states, tribes, localities, and the regulated community;  Streamlined the effectiveness and efficiency of...

On August 21, 2018, Susan Bodine, Assistant Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA), issued a memorandum to EPA Regional Administrators ordering a shift in OECA’s activities from enforcement to compliance.  This column reports on this important shift in Agency focus. Background For over two decades, EPA has strategically focused its enforcement and compliance resources on...