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On June 23, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) extended the postponement of the effective date of certain regulatory provisions of its December 17, 2024, final risk management rule for trichloroethylene (TCE) until August 19, 2025. 90 Fed. Reg. 26453. As reported in our April 15, 2025, blog item, after EPA issued the final rule in December 2024, it received multiple petitions for an administrative stay of the effective date. EPA denied the requests, and the companies submitted renewed petitions to stay the effective date of the rule, or, in the alternative, for an administrative stay of certain workplace conditions. As reported in our January 30, 2025, blog item, 13 petitions for review of the final rule were filed in various federal appellate courts. On January 13, 2025, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a petitioner's motion to stay temporarily the rule's effective date. The petitions were then consolidated and transferred to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The Third Circuit issued a January 16, 2025, order leaving the temporary stay of the effective date in place pending briefing on whether the temporary stay of the effective date should remain in effect.
EPA states in the June 23, 2025, notice that, in light of the fact that the pending litigation is still ongoing and for the same reasons as set forth in the April 2, 2025, notice, it "has determined that justice requires a 60-day extension of the postponement of the effective date (i.e., until August 19, 2025)" of the conditions for each of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Section 6(g) exemptions. EPA notes that the postponement will temporarily preserve the status quo while the Third Circuit litigation is pending and that nothing has materially changed since the April 2025 notice that would affect EPA's analysis of whether justice requires a stay of these provisions.
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