David Fischer Quoted in Inside TSCA Article on Wave of Withdrawn Section 21 Petitions

Keller and Heckman Counsel David Fischer was featured in the Inside TSCA article, “EPA Quietly Closes Out Wave Of Withdrawn Section 21 Petitions." The article discusses that EPA has quietly closed the final TSCA section 21 “citizen’s petition” submitted last spring, after several industry trade groups sought changes to Biden-era TSCA rules but later withdrew their requests without explanation.

“What’s interesting is this current administration — and I’m not exactly sure why this is, other than it’s just one more thing they have to do — they’re not fond of people filing section 21 petitions,” David commented.

“I think almost in every instance in the last eight or nine months, if you file the section 21 petition, they will call you up and say, ‘Can you withdraw it? Because we’ll handle your issue at some point, or we’re handling it now. Just withdraw it,’” Fischer added. “And I've done that and others have as well.”

Fischer acknowledged that in doing so, “it’s one less thing that they have to worry about, because EPA has to respond in 90 days, which takes some amount of time for staff to formulate the response and all that. But a lot of times, the response is pretty straightforward, and it shouldn’t take much time. But that’s still a bit of a mystery to me.”

And, he added, TSCA “section 21 is still on the books, and if you feel like you should use it, you should use it.”

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