EPA pauses Biden's new chemical disaster protections

Washington Post

07-03-2025

The Environmental Protection Agency is rewriting a rule providing safeguards to prevent accidents at chemical plants, according to a motion filed on Thursday in federal court, a move that would affect nearly 12,000 chemical facilities around the country.
The EPA asked the D.C. Court of Appeals to pause legal challenges to safety regulations introduced during the Biden administration while it 'undertakes a new rulemaking,' without specifying how it would change them. The stricter standards established under the Biden administration were set to go into effect next year, and be fully implemented by May 2027.
The new updates to the federal 'Risk Management Program,' first reported by the Hill, would force operations with the most hazardous substances to evaluate and implement safer technologies, and require all facilities to account for how to respond to natural disasters in their emergency plans. It also required companies to provide more transparency about the chemicals they store with local communities and first responders, and to offer greater employee protections.
The agency did not respond to questions Friday, referring to the court filing, which said the new rule will be written 'in light of the new Administration's policy priorities.'
The first Trump administration weakened the rule, which was established under the Obama administration, allowing companies to store chemicals on-site without having to inform the public and letting facilities operate without undertaking measures aimed at preventing accidents.
The American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group that challenged the rule, did not provide direct comment, instead referring to a joint letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin in January.
'The 2024 rule imposes misguided and illegal new requirements that fail to make facilities safer,' the letter said. 'Urgent action is needed to address these problems before industry must make costly investments in preparation for the looming compliance deadline.'
In addition, the letter called on the EPA to shut down a public tool that allows communities to look up details about chemical facilities across the country, including information on past chemical accidents, arguing that the 'disclosure of this sensitive security information to anyone with an internet connection creates additional security risks.'
Environmental advocates criticized the EPA's move, arguing that weakening the rules will put communities at risk of more incidents.
'We've been here before, and the losers are always the families, workers and first responders,' said Adam Kron, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, an environmental law firm. 'The EPA should be implementing its chemical disaster safety, not rolling it back.'
Despite safety rules, dangerous accidents occur regularly at U.S. chemical plants. According to the most recent EPA data, some 177 million Americans could be affected by chemical disasters under worst-case scenarios.