Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/787158
EPA shares first-year plan for TSCA WASHINGTON, D.C.—The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released its first-year plan for activities and actions to enact the newly amended US chemicals law, the first such major chemical management law reform in 40 years. In its "Implementation Plan," the EPA notes that The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which was signed into law last June and is a significant amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) of 1976, imposes new responsibilities on the agency with comparatively short deadlines. Under the new law, the EPA is required to test the tens of thousands of unregulated chemicals that are currently on the market, and the roughly 2,000 new chemicals introduced each year. The document highlights a description of the new law's requirements and EPA's goals. Specific details about how exactly the agency will reach the stated goals is not clear. The EPA has identified three main focus areas: new chemicals, confi- dential business information, and ongo- ing TSCA Section 6 rulemaking. The plan notes that the EPA must re- view and make decisions on all new confidentiality claims for chemical identity within the 90-day review pe- riod. Where a chemical confidentiality claim is upheld, the agency must apply a unique identifier to the chemical and any associated information. The EPA's goal is to meet the 90-day deadline and develop a plan to link the associated in- formation within 30 days. As for the agency's ongoing TSCA sec- tion 6 rulemaking, the new law allows the EPA to publish proposed and final rules for chemicals with risk assessments completed prior to June 22, 2016, even if they do not cover all conditions of use. The document indicates that the EPA will move forward with rulemakings to address the risks it has identified with certain uses of trichloroethylene (TCE), m e t h y l e n e c h l o r i d e ( M C ) , a n d Nmethylpyrrolidone (NMP). Specifi- cally, the agency hopes to have a pro- posed rule for MC and NMP use in paint removers soon, with a final rule an- ticipated by early December 2017. The Implementation Plan also indicates several other framework actions the EPA intends to establish over the next several months in order to guide the long-term program efforts. They include complet- ing initial risk evaluations of 10 Work Plan chemicals; publishing a prioritiza- tion process rule, risk evaluation rule, fees rule, and inventory rule; and estab- lishing a science advisory committee. Critics have said the new law will be an enormous challenge for the EPA. Judge delays contractor blacklist rule WASHINGTON, D.C.—A new rule that would put federal contractors under much closer scrutiny was delayed by a preliminary injunction from a federal judge in October, the day it was sched- uled to go into partial effect. The Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces Rule was published by the Department of Labor and the Federal Acquisition Regulation Council. Originally issued in July 2014 and amended in 2016, the act was supposed to go into effect October 25. It requires businesses seeking federal contracts of over $500,000 to disclose not only civil and administrative proceedings against them, but also violations of any of 14 listed workplace protections in the past three years. The rule is referred to by critics as the "blacklisting" rule. The Department of Labor holds that the new rules ensure contractors who don't follow the rules aren't rewarded with federal contracts, and those who do are given a fair chance. Some indus- try voices, though, say the act goes too far in blacklisting companies that vio- late rules some consider to be unfair. Industry arguments against the new rule largely center around the idea that enforcement can be subjective, and that violations must be reported even if they haven't gone through the entire appeals process. Several groups, including the Associated Builders and Contractors, have fervently opposed the rule, bring- ing a legal challenge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. Judge Marcia A. Crone issued the pre- liminary injunction in the case, noting that the groups had "properly demon- strated immediate and ongoing injury to their members if the rule is allowed to take effect." She also wrote that the regu- lations "appear in conflict directly with every one of the labor laws they purport to invoke by permitting disqualification solely upon 'administrative merits deter- minations' that are nothing more than allegations of fault asserted by agency employees and do not constitute final agency findings of any violations at all." Further, Crone wrote that the group's argument that the executive order and subsequent rule from the Federal Ac- quisition Regulatory Council violate the First Amendment has merit because they require contractors to publicly dis- close violations of any of the 14 federal labor laws "without regard to whether such violations have been finally adjudi- cated after a hearing or settled without a hearing, or even occurred at all." The labor law violations that must be disclosed according to the new rule in- clude those related to wage and hour laws, health and safety rules, collective bargaining, family and medical leave, and civil rights protections. The three- year window only applies to violations after October 2015. That essentially gives a clean slate for companies with vi- olations before that date. While the executive order would con- siderably add to the burden for federal contractors, it's not the first time firms seeking government contracts have dealt with this sort of procedure. Similar rules, also heralded by some as a black- list, were put into effect in the waning days of the Clinton administration in 2000, but were rolled back in 2001 after George W. Bush took office. AkzoNobel completes acquisition of BASF's coatings business AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands— Ten months after confirming its inten- tions, coatings manufacturer AkzoNobel has completed its acquisition of BASF's Industrial Coatings business, which sup- plies products for the construction, wind energy, commercial transport, and do- mestic appliances industries. The deal 4 POWDER COATING, February 2017 UPDATE:Industry