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We recently encountered a list of the 10 most common Clean Air Act (CAA) violations, which included failure of facilities to track the loss of regulated refrigerants from equipment. (Seven of the other violations relate to permits.) In fact, tracking the loss of a refrigerant and recordkeeping in general are major responsibilities under EPA’s refrigerant […]
On March 25, 2016, federal OSHA finalized its new crystalline silica rule. Despite a court challenge, and over the objections of Cal/OSHA’s construction industry, the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board (OSHSB) has adopted federal OSHA’s silica rules.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently finalized broad changes to its refrigerant management regulations under 40 CFR 82. Those owning, operating, maintaining, servicing, repairing, or disposing of air-conditioning and refrigeration equipment will all be impacted by these revisions. The most significant change extends the regulations for ozone-depleting refrigerants to non-ozone- depleting substitutes through an […]
OSHA has agreed to extend the date the Agency was to begin enforcing the antiretaliation provisions of the final rule to improve tracking of workplace injuries and illnesses. Enforcement of the provisions that went into effect August 1, 2016, was already extended once to November 1, 2016. With the latest announcement, employers have until December […]
The new section 6(h) of the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, which greatly expanded the reach of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), requires that within 3 years of the June 22, 2016, date of enactment, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must propose rules to reduce risks (by reducing […]
On this episode of EHS on Tap, OSHA’s new recordkeeping rule—what’s in store for drug testing and employer retaliation, we address OSHA’s recent rulemaking on reporting injuries in the workplace and how work-related injuries can trigger drug testing and employer retaliation. We speak with attorney Adele Abrams. Adele heads a nine-attorney firm that represents employers […]
A little over a year ago, OSHA issued a memorandum revising the agency’s interpretation of the PSM standard’s retail facility exemption. However, on September 23, 2016, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated the agency’s revised interpretation.
In its continuing effort to bring its Clean Air Act (CAA) greenhouse gas (GHG) regulations in line with the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA (UARG v. EPA), the Agency is proposing several amendments to provisions in its Prevention of Significant Deterioration (PSD) program. Essentially, the proposal describes specific conditions […]
The EPA has issued a direct final rule extending the compliance deadline for onshore unconventional oil and gas (UOG) extraction wells subject to the Agency’s June 28, 2016, final pretreatment effluent limitations guidelines (ELGs). Under the direct final rule, UOG facilities—including wells that are hydraulically fractured—that were lawfully discharging to publicly owned treatment works (POTWs) […]
On this episode of EHS on Tap, we speak with Joe MacDougald, a Professor in Residence on the faculty of the UConn Law School and the Executive Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Law about the D.C. Circuit Court’s en banc review of the Environmental Protection Agency’s most ambitious regulatory initiative and a […]