Prero Discusses Publication of EPA’s TSCA Risk Evaluation Rule

Environmental counsel Judah Prero was quoted in the Chemical Watch article, “Publication of TSCA risk evaluation rule starts clock for parties to file legal challenge,” which discusses the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) recent update to its previous risk evaluation framework rule. The article highlights potential legal challenges to the update that could bring judicial scrutiny to key Biden Administration policies in place since July 2021 and resurface unresolved statutory interpretation questions stemming from an NGO challenge to the rule’s 2017 version.

“It's clear that this EPA decided to take a very different approach than the last EPA,” Prero told Chemical Watch. “If there is an administration change, I would expect things to swing back the other way at some point. It could be that any potential litigant might just want to keep their powder dry, for the time being, and wait it out,” he added, referring to potential legal challenges. Prero noted that the EPA included extensive discussion of the ‘severability’ of various provisions in its recent final rules, which could allow the agency to “salvage a rule to some degree.”

The article notes that since more final rules are expected to publish later in 2024, simultaneous lawsuits over various risk management rules are also likely to follow, which may result in judges issuing conflicting positions on fundamental issues. “EPA is just going to have to figure out how it goes” and the Supreme Court may need to step in to resolve disputes, Prero said.

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