The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on March 25, 2020, that it will consider a proposed rule that would look at potential exemptions to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) fees rule in response to stakeholder concerns about implementation challenges.  EPA states that by considering a proposal to narrow the broad scope of the current requirements, it “could significantly reduce burden on potentially thousands of businesses across the country while maintaining the ability to successfully implement the Lautenberg Act amendments” to TSCA to protect human health and the environment.  According to EPA, it plans to initiate a new rulemaking process to consider proposing exemptions to the current rule’s self-identification requirements associated with EPA-initiated risk evaluations for manufacturers that:

• Import the chemical substance in an article;
• Produce the chemical substance as a byproduct; or
• Produce or import the chemical substance as an impurity.

EPA states that it may also consider proposing other changes to the rule during this process consistent with TSCA’s requirement to reevaluate the fees rule every three years.  EPA notes that it believes that considering exempting certain entities from self-identification requirements will not impede the ability to collect fully the necessary fees and will still allow it to achieve the ultimate objective of the TSCA fees rule and the statute -- “to defray a portion of EPA’s TSCA implementation costs.”  EPA intends to issue proposed amendments to the current fees rule later in 2020, with the goal of promulgating the amendments in 2021.

EPA states that additionally, “in light of the extremely unusual circumstances of this situation and the undue hardship imposed on certain businesses who would be required to collect and report information” under the TSCA fees rule, EPA issued a “no action assurance” for the three categories of manufacturers at this time.  More specifically, EPA “will exercise its enforcement discretion regarding the self-identification requirement for the three categories of manufacturers” for which EPA intends to propose an exemption.

EPA suggests that businesses that are erroneously on the preliminary lists of fee payers or fall into one of the three categories discussed above should see its frequently asked questions (FAQ) for more information about how to certify as such to EPA and to avoid fee obligations.  EPA posted more information on its announcement, as well as a copy of the no-action assurance, on its website.  More information is available in our March 9, 2020, blog item, “EPA Extends Deadline to Self-Identify as a Manufacturer or Importer of a High-Priority Chemical to May 27.”