Greg Clark Quoted in Inside EPA Article, "EPA, Industry Brace for Upcoming TSCA Deadline to Resubmit CBI Claims"

Keller and Heckman Partner Greg Clark was quoted in the Inside EPA article, “EPA, Industry Brace for Upcoming TSCA Deadline to Resubmit CBI Claims.” The article discusses how EPA and an industry lawyer are urging companies to re-substantiate claims that certain chemical data is confidential business information (CBI) under TSCA by a November 1 deadline.

During an October 14 webinar, Mr. Clark said, “If the CBI claim is not substantiated then EPA will proceed through its normal approach for removing that substance from the confidential inventory, moving it to the public portion of the inventory.”

At issue are provisions in section 8(b) of the revised Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) that required EPA to write a rule on CBI claims for specific identities of chemicals reported as “active” in U.S. commerce under the TSCA Inventory Notification (Active-Inactive) Rule, according to the agency.

Responding to a lawsuit from environmentalists, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in April of this year to require the agency to update the regulation regarding reverse engineering, or methods that can be used to identify chemicals listed in the confidential portion of the inventory. As a result, chemical manufactures that submitted a Form A under the Active-Inactive Rule must now resubmit CBI claims to address reverse engineering concerns.

“So it is absolutely critical that if you submitted a Form A for a substance on the confidential inventory, and claimed that identity to be CBI, that you meet the substantiation deadline of November 1st to take care of that,” Mr. Clark warned company officials.

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