EPA will revisit Biden-era ban on the last type of asbestos used in US
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency told a federal appeals court it will reconsider the Biden administration's ban on the last type of asbestos used in the United States to determine whether it went 'beyond what is necessary."
Asbestos is linked to tens of thousands of deaths annually and causes mesothelioma as well as other cancers. It has been largely phased out in the United States. Last year, the Biden administration sought to finish the decades-long fight by banning chrysotile asbestos. At the time, the EPA called it a milestone in the fight against cancer.
The EPA on Monday said in a court filing that it would reconsider the Biden administration's rule over roughly the next 30 months. The agency said the Toxic Substances Control Act requires it to evaluate a chemical's risk and the consequences of restricting it.
Now, officials will look at whether parts of the ban 'went beyond what is necessary to eliminate the unreasonable risk and whether alternative measures — such as requiring permanent workplace protection measures — would eliminate the unreasonable risk,' according to a court declaration by Lynn Ann Dekleva, a senior official in EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.
Chrysotile asbestos is found in products like brake blocks, asbestos diaphragms and sheet gaskets and was banned under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which was broadened in 2016. When the ban was announced, there were eight U.S. facilities that used asbestos diaphragms in the chlor-alkali sector for the manufacture of chlorine and sodium hydroxide, chemicals commonly used as water disinfectants. The facilities were given at least five years to make the change.
The development was first reported by The New York Times.
Advocates blasted the move as weakening prohibitions against a deadly carcinogen.
'This latest move by Administrator Lee Zeldin and EPA is yet another alarming signal that this administration is operating without limits as they dole out favors to polluter lobbyists without regard for the health and well-being of people living in the US,' said Michelle Roos, executive director of the Environmental Protection Network, a nonprofit.
Zeldin has announced dozens of deregulatory actions in the first months of the Trump administration and former top industry officials are in key EPA positions — Dekleva, for example, used to work at the American Chemistry Council, which was among the groups that filed the court challenge against the Biden administration's ban. Recently, the EPA proposed a rollback of greenhouse gas rules for coal plants.
The American Chemistry Council said it supports the agency's move to ensure rules 'use a risk-based approach consistent with the best available science.'
The EPA did not immediately respond to a request for comment late Tuesday.
___
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP's environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
San Francisco Chronicle
28 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Civil rights agency's acting chief to face questions on anti-DEI, transgender stances
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The acting chief of the country's top agency for enforcing worker rights will face questions at a Senate committee hearing Wednesday over her efforts to prioritize anti-diversity investigations while sidelining certain racial and gender discrimination cases and quashing protections for transgender workers. Andrea Lucas, who was first appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2020 and elevated to acting chief in January, is one of four Labor Department nominees to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Her nomination to serve another five-year term as an EEOC commissioner requires Senate confirmation, though whether she stays on as chief will be up to President Donald Trump. Lucas, an outspoken critic of diversity, equity and inclusion practices and promoter of the idea that there are only two immutable sexes, has moved swiftly to enact Trump's civil rights agenda after he abruptly fired two of the EEOC's Democratic commissioners before the end of their five-year terms, an unprecedented move in the agency's 60-year history that has been challenged in a lawsuit. Lucas is prioritizing worker rights that conservatives argue have been ignored by the EEOC. That includes investigating company DEI practices, defending the rights of women to same-sex spaces and fighting anti-Christian bias in the workplace. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate committee holding the hearing, has championed many of those causes. He accused the EEOC under the Biden administration of 'injecting its far-left" agenda into the workplace, including by updating sexual harassment guidelines to warn against misgendering transgender workers and including abortion as a pregnancy-related condition under regulations for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Questioning the EEOC's independence Democrats on the committee are likely to grill Lucas over criticism that she overstepped her authority by profoundly shifting the EEOC's direction to the whims of the president in the absence of a quorum, which commission has lacked since Trump fired the two commissioners. Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the committee, said she will oppose any EEOC nominations unless Trump reinstates the two fired Democratic commissioners, which she and more than 200 other Democratic senators and Congress members condemned in a letter to the president as an abuse of power. 'President Trump is weaponizing the independent EEOC to serve his personal political agenda, firing commissioners without cause and warping the mission of the EEOC beyond recognition,' Murray said in a statement ahead of the hearing. 'Commissioner Lucas is a right-wing extremist who has been in lockstep behind Trump's pro-discrimination agenda.' Lucas has made clear her views of the limitations of the EEOC's autonomy. In a recent memo to employers, Lucas declared that the 'EEOC is an executive branch agency, not an independent agency" that will "fully and robustly comply" with all executive orders. That includes two orders that Trump signed in January: one directing federal agencies to eliminate their own DEI activities and end any 'equity-related' grants or contracts, and the other imposing a certification provision on all companies and institutions with government contracts or grant dollars to demonstrate that they don't operate DEI programs. The EEOC's new approach alarmed more than 30 civil rights groups, which sent a letter to the Senate committee demanding that Lucas face a hearing. The groups argued that the EEOC was created by Congress under 1964 Civil Rights Act to be a bipartisan agency that would function independently from the executive branch. The EEOC, the only federal agency empowered to investigate employment discrimination in the private sector, received more than 88,000 charges of workplace discrimination in fiscal year 2024. Its commissioners are appointed by the president to staggered terms, and no more than three can be from the same party. Much of the EEOC's authority is granted by Congress, including the obligation to investigate all complaints and enact regulations for implementing some laws. EEOC shifts the focus of discrimination cases Under Lucas, the EEOC dropped seven of its own lawsuits on behalf of transgender or nonbinary workers. It also moved to drop a racial discrimination case on behalf of Black, Native American and multiracial job applicants after Trump ordered federal agencies to stop pursuing discrimination that falls under 'disparate impact liability,' which aims to identify practices that systematically exclude certain demographic groups. Instead, Lucas has turned the EEOC's attention to investigating company DEI practices. In her most high profile move, she sent letters to 20 law firms demanding information about diversity fellowships and other programs she claimed could be evidence of discriminatory practices. Lucas has also repeatedly encouraged workers nationwide to come forward with DEI complaints. She launched a hotline for whistleblowers and said workers should be encouraged to report bad DEI practices after a Supreme Court decision made it easier for white and other non-minority workers to bring reverse-discrimination lawsuits. ________ The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Alan Wilson, South Carolina's longtime GOP attorney general, set to enter 2026 governor's race
CHAPIN, S.C. (AP) — Alan Wilson, the four-term Republican attorney general of South Carolina, is set to enter the state's open gubernatorial race in 2026, setting up a primary contest likely to be a multi-candidate competition for President Donald Trump's endorsement. Long expected to run, Wilson is expected to officially launch his campaign at an event on Monday, according to a person familiar with Wilson's political plans who was not authorized to speak about them publicly. The Associated Press viewed an invitation sent out this week, inviting backers to an 'Alan Wilson for South Carolina Campaign Rally.' Official filing for the state's 2026 elections doesn't open until March, but several other Republicans have already made moves toward running. That includes Rep. Nancy Mace, who told the AP earlier this year she was 'seriously considering' a run, as well as Lt. Gov. Pam Evette, who has made similar statements. All three potential Republican hopefuls have supported Trump in his own campaigns, and while Trump's role in 2026 races is yet to be known, it could have sway in the state where he's remained popular since his 2016 South Carolina GOP primary win helped cement him as the party's nominee. In 2018, Trump helped Gov. Henry McMaster secure a primary runoff win that set him on the path to becoming South Carolina's longest-serving governor. As South Carolina's top prosecutor, Wilson has taken actions to support Trump's political and personal moves. In 2020, he was lead signatory on a letter decrying impeachment proceedings against Trump as 'fundamentally flawed as a matter of constitutional law.' Last year, Wilson traveled to New York to support Trump as he stood trial in a hush money case. Republicans have in recent decades dominated South Carolina's statewide-elected positions, including governor, meaning that some of the most intense political competition has taken place in GOP primaries. With McMaster — in office since Nikki Haley's 2017 departure to serve as Trump's United Nations Ambassador — term-limited, next year's Republican primary is expected to be intense. Like his predecessor in the attorney general's office, McMaster, Wilson has been part of dozens of lawsuits against Democratic presidents, suing the Biden administration over issues including vaccine mandates and environmental regulations. Wilson, who has served three times as chairman of the Republican Attorneys General Association, has spearheaded other national efforts, including wrangling top prosecutors in all 50 states to urge Congress to craft legislation to guard against the use of artificial intelligence in exploiting children through pornography. In addition, he has led his GOP colleagues in pressing federal lawmakers for a bill allowing state prisons to jam the signals of cellphones smuggled to inmates. On the state level, he defended South Carolina's restrictive abortion law — which bans the practice around six weeks after conception — against constitutional challenges. Wilson recused himself from a wide-ranging, multi-year state ethics probe into lawmakers including then-House Speaker Bobby Harrell, due to a connection with a political consultant entangled in the case. Wilson was in the national spotlight throughout 2023, as his office prosecuted Alex Murdaugh, the disgraced attorney currently serving two life prison sentences for the 2021 murders of his wife and son at the family's rural home. Attention on the six-week trial swirled into cult-like status, with daily events live-streamed by a number of outlets, and true-crime influencers giving regular updates to their followers from the environs near a small-town courthouse in South Carolina's Lowcountry. The son of Rep. Joe Wilson, a longtime South Carolina congressman, Wilson, his wife and their two children live in Lexington, South Carolina. First elected attorney general in 2010, he has served for nearly three decades in the Army National Guard, with the current rank of colonel. ___ Kinnard can be reached at
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Civil rights agency's acting chief to face questions on anti-DEI, transgender stances
WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP) — The acting chief of the country's top agency for enforcing worker rights will face questions at a Senate committee hearing Wednesday over her efforts to prioritize anti-diversity investigations while sidelining certain racial and gender discrimination cases and quashing protections for transgender workers. Andrea Lucas, who was first appointed to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in 2020 and elevated to acting chief in January, is one of four Labor Department nominees to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. Her nomination to serve another five-year term as an EEOC commissioner requires Senate confirmation, though whether she stays on as chief will be up to President Donald Trump. Lucas, an outspoken critic of diversity, equity and inclusion practices and promoter of the idea that there are only two immutable sexes, has moved swiftly to enact Trump's civil rights agenda after he abruptly fired two of the EEOC's Democratic commissioners before the end of their five-year terms, an unprecedented move in the agency's 60-year history that has been challenged in a lawsuit. Lucas is prioritizing worker rights that conservatives argue have been ignored by the EEOC. That includes investigating company DEI practices, defending the rights of women to same-sex spaces and fighting anti-Christian bias in the workplace. Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate committee holding the hearing, has championed many of those causes. He accused the EEOC under the Biden administration of 'injecting its far-left" agenda into the workplace, including by updating sexual harassment guidelines to warn against misgendering transgender workers and including abortion as a pregnancy-related condition under regulations for the Pregnant Workers Fairness Act. Questioning the EEOC's independence Democrats on the committee are likely to grill Lucas over criticism that she overstepped her authority by profoundly shifting the EEOC's direction to the whims of the president in the absence of a quorum, which commission has lacked since Trump fired the two commissioners. Sen. Patty Murray, a member of the committee, said she will oppose any EEOC nominations unless Trump reinstates the two fired Democratic commissioners, which she and more than 200 other Democratic senators and Congress members condemned in a letter to the president as an abuse of power. 'President Trump is weaponizing the independent EEOC to serve his personal political agenda, firing commissioners without cause and warping the mission of the EEOC beyond recognition,' Murray said in a statement ahead of the hearing. 'Commissioner Lucas is a right-wing extremist who has been in lockstep behind Trump's pro-discrimination agenda.' Lucas has made clear her views of the limitations of the EEOC's autonomy. In a recent memo to employers, Lucas declared that the 'EEOC is an executive branch agency, not an independent agency" that will "fully and robustly comply" with all executive orders. That includes two orders that Trump signed in January: one directing federal agencies to eliminate their own DEI activities and end any 'equity-related' grants or contracts, and the other imposing a certification provision on all companies and institutions with government contracts or grant dollars to demonstrate that they don't operate DEI programs. The EEOC's new approach alarmed more than 30 civil rights groups, which sent a letter to the Senate committee demanding that Lucas face a hearing. The groups argued that the EEOC was created by Congress under 1964 Civil Rights Act to be a bipartisan agency that would function independently from the executive branch. The EEOC, the only federal agency empowered to investigate employment discrimination in the private sector, received more than 88,000 charges of workplace discrimination in fiscal year 2024. Its commissioners are appointed by the president to staggered terms, and no more than three can be from the same party. Much of the EEOC's authority is granted by Congress, including the obligation to investigate all complaints and enact regulations for implementing some laws. EEOC shifts the focus of discrimination cases Under Lucas, the EEOC dropped seven of its own lawsuits on behalf of transgender or nonbinary workers. It also moved to drop a racial discrimination case on behalf of Black, Native American and multiracial job applicants after Trump ordered federal agencies to stop pursuing discrimination that falls under 'disparate impact liability,' which aims to identify practices that systematically exclude certain demographic groups. Instead, Lucas has turned the EEOC's attention to investigating company DEI practices. In her most high profile move, she sent letters to 20 law firms demanding information about diversity fellowships and other programs she claimed could be evidence of discriminatory practices. Lucas has also repeatedly encouraged workers nationwide to come forward with DEI complaints. She launched a hotline for whistleblowers and said workers should be encouraged to report bad DEI practices after a Supreme Court decision made it easier for white and other non-minority workers to bring reverse-discrimination lawsuits. ________ The Associated Press' women in the workforce and state government coverage receives financial support from Pivotal Ventures. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP's standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at Alexandra Olson And Claire Savage, The Associated Press
