All Knowledge & Insights By Date

On January 24, 2017, comments by Lynn L. Bergeson, President of The Acta Group (Acta®), were included in the Bloomberg BNA Daily Environmental Report Article “White House Ices Energy, Environmental Rules Pending Review.” Attorneys said they were unsure of the memo's impact on an EPA rule (RIN:2070-AJ54) that requires manufacturers, importers and processors to submit information about nanoscale chemicals, including production volumes. This rule was published Jan. 12...

On January 19, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed a process for conducting risk evaluations to determine whether a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment, including an unreasonable risk to a potentially exposed or susceptible subpopulation, under the conditions of use. 82 Fed, Reg. 7562. The process would not consider costs or other non-risk factors. Risk evaluation is the second step, after prioritization, in a new...

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed on January 17, 2017, procedures to establish the risk-based screening process and criteria that EPA will use to identify chemical substances under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as either High-Priority Substances for risk evaluation, or Low-Priority Substances for which risk evaluations are not warranted at the time. 82 Fed. Reg. 4825. The proposed rule describes the processes for identifying potential candidates for...

On January 17, 2017, Bloomberg BNA Daily Environment Report included a quote by Lynn L. Bergeson, President of The Acta Group (Acta®), in the article “EPA Proposes Strategy to Identify, Review Commercial Chemicals.” Lynn Bergeson, managing partner of Bergeson & Campbell PC in Washington, D.C., told Bloomberg BNA, “EPA has done the near impossible in proposing three epic rules. Now the burden is on other stakeholders to define, clarify, and help the process...

On January 17, 2017, the Bloomberg BNA Daily Environment Report Article “Process to Select Chemicals for Risk Review Proposed: EPA” included comments by Lynn L. Bergeson, President of The Acta Group (Acta®), discussing specifics of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed risk rule. Lynn Bergeson, managing partner with the Washington D.C.-based law firm Bergeson & Campbell, PC, said she too would have liked EPA's proposed rule to be clearer as...

On January 13, 2017, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a proposed rule that would require an electronic notification for chemical substances listed on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory that were manufactured (including imported) for non-exempt commercial purposes during the ten-year time period ending on June 21, 2016. 82 Fed. Reg. 4255. EPA would also accept such notices for chemical substances that were processed. The recent TSCA amendments require EPA to...

In an expected action, on January 11, 2017, the Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a proposed rule under Section 6(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to regulate the use of trichloroethylene (TCE) in vapor degreasing.  The proposed rule has not yet been published in the Federal Register, but a pre-publication version of the proposed rule is available on EPA’s website, along with a fact sheet and other...

REGISTER TODAY Thursday, February 16, 2017, 2:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time The Central and South American chemical regulatory environment continues to be one that is challenging to understand, navigate, and manage from a business perspective.  These challenges most often stem from one of three aspects:  a lack of knowledge concerning the regulatory and governmental authority structure; a challenge in determining which...

On January 13, 2017, slides from the B&C® Consortia Management’s (BC-CM) NMP Producers Group Meeting with the Office of Management and Budget were discussed in the Inside EPA article “Chemical Makers Cite TSCA Listing In Call For EPA To Drop NMP Proposal.” […] But representatives from Bergeson & Campbell on behalf of NMP producers in a Dec. 5 meeting with EPA and OMB officials ahead of the proposal's release argued that the rulemaking does not...

In a final rule issued on January 12, 2017, EPA adjusted the level of statutory civil monetary penalty amounts under the statutes EPA administers. 82 Fed. Reg. 3633. The adjustments are mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended through the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015. The latter law prescribes a formula for annually adjusting statutory civil penalties to reflect inflation, maintain the deterrent effect of...