Industry eyes fees to update TSCA

Just days after President Donald J. Trump was sworn into office for his second term, Republicans in the House of Representatives introduced legislation to roll back a recent EPA regulation that restricts the widely used solvent trichloroethylene (TCE). Legislators also heard from industry representatives about the need to accelerate the approval of new chemicals and a proposed mechanism for updating the country’s primary chemicals law. During a Jan. 22 subcommittee hearing of the House Energy and Commerce Committee , executives from the American Chemistry Council (ACC) and the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers, along with a chemical industry consultant, testified that the US Environmental Protection Agency is taking too much of a precautionary approach to managing the health risks of chemicals. “Due to unrealistic assumptions about exposures to chemicals, the EPA’s approach has led to unnecessary overregulation that is out of step with the rest of the world,” Chris Jahn,