To Win Dunn's Confirmation, EPA Vows To Revise Key TSCA Programs

摘要

Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler has pledged to review and in some cases revise key programs governing new and existing chemicals the agency is seeking to create under the reformed Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), commitments that helped win 11th-hour Senate confirmation for the agency toxics chief, Alexandra Dunn. In an undated letter to Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE), the top Democrat on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Wheeler promised to work with the committee and others as it revises its controversial framework for how officials will review new chemicals and make the new chemicals program - as well as confidential business information (CBI) reviews for new and existing chemicals - more transparent. The letter is available on ImideEPA.com. (Doc. ID: 218071) He also pledges to seek peer review by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) for the agency's policy on how it will consider data it uses when it assesses risks of existing chemicals, a key demand of Democrats during Dunn's confirmation hearing, and commits to issue a supplement to a proposed rule restricting new uses of a perfluorinated compound. "I fully appreciate that you want to know that the bipartisan work which went into the [2016] enactment of [TSCA reform] is fully reflected in its implementation by the EPA," Wheeler wrote. "I would like to commit to providing additional public information for the review of chemicals under this statute."