David Fischer Quoted in Inside TSCA Article on Impacts of Trump Deregulatory Push

Keller and Heckman Counsel David Fischer was quoted in the Inside TSCA article, “State Actions On Chemicals May Surge Under Trump Deregulatory Push.” The article notes that the Trump administration’s deregulatory focus is likely to drive increased state action on PFAS and other chemicals, even though some industry sectors are pushing for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to use the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to preempt state action.

David pointed out that TSCA is “woefully behind” on the review process for chemicals that have already been prioritized, so he does not know “whether the agency at least right now has the bandwidth to do any more risk evaluations on any other chemicals, whether they’re PFAS or not.”

On the other hand, “states, as we know, can move a whole lot faster than federal agencies can…and I think states have been moving, obviously, very, very quickly on PFAS,” said David. “So, I think the horses have left the barn. I don’t know how you put it back in when this PFAS issue has now been going on for a whole lot of years. So, I honestly don’t know how you can bring about curtailing or trying to limit state activities, because the federal agencies are now moving in a similar direction. I don’t know how you do that. I think state activities are here to stay, in whatever permutation that that entails.”

Alternatively, David mentioned that Congress could insert a preemption provision into new PFAS legislation to provide a workaround to the TSCA review process, but “that would be a complicated negotiation.”

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