On July 30, 2024, The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit temporarily halted litigation over the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) updated Risk Management Program (RMP) rule and granted a four-month abeyance. The final RMP rule was published on March 22, 2024.
The order granting the abeyance allows EPA time
On July 2, 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released the official text of its Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed standard. OSHA has been developing this standard since 2021, which will likely be finalized later this year.
The standard includes general mandates for all covered employers,
On June 13, 2024, the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) opened a 15 day public comment period (expiring June 28) for interested parties to comment on the State’s proposed changes to regulations that require additional information in future warnings on consumer products that contain chemicals linked to cancer or birth defects.
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On May 28, 2024, the U.S. Departments of Treasury, Agriculture, Energy, and White House representatives published a joint Policy Statement on voluntary carbon markets (VCMs). The Policy Statement sets out seven principles to guide engagement with VCMs, and the principles are designed to ensure that VCMs are effective, fair, and equitable, and instill market
Introduction
On April 19, 2024, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule adding perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) to the list of hazardous substances regulated under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), commonly known as the “Superfund” statute. This designation, which had been expected for several years,
On March 6, 2024, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved the long awaited and controversial Climate-Related Disclosure Rules. The proposed rules were originally published in March 2022 and have undergone significant revisions since then. Per the SEC, “The final rules will become effective 60 days following publication of the adopting release in
On January 31, 2024, EPA published a press release announcing the impending publication of two proposed rules relating to PFAS and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA): (1) “Definition of Hazardous Waste Applicable to Corrective Action from Solid Waste Management Units” and (2) “Listing of Specific PFAS as Hazardous Constituents.”
Definition of Hazardous
The Washington Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) adopted CR-103, creating a new Part B to chapter 296-67 WAC, on December 27, 2023. Specifically applicable to petroleum refineries, Part B includes and updates existing PSM requirements as well as introduces several new requirements, some of which are expected to be onerous for refiners to
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has recently submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) a final rule to update its Hazard Communication Standard (“HazCom”), which regulates the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals in the workplace. The rule aims to align the HazCom with the latest version of the
On September 30, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB-553 into law. SB-553 is the nation’s first workplace violence prevention law. The law adds a new section 6401.9 to the California Labor Code, which will be implemented by Cal/OSHA. The new law requires that employers an effective plan aimed at preventing workplace violence in place