The most anticipated developments for 2024 in UK chemicals regulation are the long-awaited publication of the UK’s Chemicals Strategy, and a consultation on the UK government’s alternative transitional registration model (ATRm). In November 2023, a policy paper was issued outlining the government’s high-level plans for ATRm, but the questions and details for stakeholders are still unknown.
On December 2, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued the pre-publication version of its Final Rule for standards of performance in the Oil and Natural Gas sector. The original proposed rule, published on November 15, 2021, sought to strengthen methane standards for new sources (New Source Performance Standards or NSPS), establish nationwide emission guidelines (EG) for regulation of existing sources, and develop new standards for unregulated sources. EPA later issued a supplemental proposed rulemaking on November 15, 2022 (2022 Supplemental Proposed Rulemaking), as we summarized in our previous post. In total, EPA received nearly 1 million public comments on this rulemaking. The rules, when published in the federal register, will be included in 40 CFR Part 60, Subpart OOOOb (NSPS) and Subpart OOOOc (EG).
Our team at Squire Patton Boggs monitors environmental justice (EJ) developments and provides periodic updates regarding environmental justice topics. Recently, US EPA released draft revisions to its Technical Guidance for Assessing Environmental Justice in Regulatory Analysis (EJ Technical Guidance), and US EPA is currently seeking public comments through January 15, 2024.
The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) recently released a prepublication version of its final rule establishing a greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions measure. The final rule establishes a method for measurement of GHG emissions associated with transportation and requires state departments of transportation (State DOTs) and metropolitan planning organizations (MPOs) that have National Highway System (NHS) routes within their jurisdiction to establish targets for reducing GHG emissions from on-road sources and to report on their efforts to meet those targets. The rule will take effect thirty days after the date of its publication in the Federal Register. State DOTs are required to establish targets and report those targets by February 1, 2024. Subsequent targets would be established and reported by no later than October 1, 2026.
On November 9, 2023, the FDA published notice of final guidance that delays FDA’s enforcement of some facilities’ registration and product listing compliance requirements under MOCRA to July 1, 2024. This enforcement delay applies to facilities that “engaged in manufacturing or processing of a cosmetic product” or products as of MOCRA’s enactment date (December 29, 2022). Additionally, on November 1, 2023 the FDA issued an announcement delaying the implementation date for its new online submission portal called “Cosmetics Direct” for facility registrations and product listings. For more details on the key changes and issues, see our detailed post on this issue here.
In August 2023, the FDA released draft guidance on upcoming regulatory changes pursuant to MOCRA, including guidance on cosmetic product facility registrations and product listings. MOCRA applies to any establishment that manufactures or processes cosmetics products. According to the draft guidance, the FDA is in the process of creating a new online portal for facility registrations and product listings and has created a draft list of categories and codes for cosmetic products for facilities to use when registering a facility or listing a cosmetic product. For more details on the key changes and issues, see our detailed post on this issue here.
From October 2023, a broad range of products moving from Great Britain (GB) to Northern Ireland (NI) (and that are intended for “final consumption” in NI) will be processed through a “green lane” and be subject to fewer checks and controls. While this will ultimately facilitate movements of various products, there are implications for businesses in the short term.
The White House has announced long-awaited final guidance to federal agencies to implement domestic content and manufacturing requirements in federally funded infrastructure projects. The Biden administration guidance applies broadly to the use of iron, steel, and other common construction materials and products and, as a result, is expected to have broad implications for awardees of federal funding, prospective applicants, contractors, and suppliers.
Would you rather pay your bills tomorrow or next year? What about your paycheck? Intuitively, most people want delayed costs and immediate benefits, and so want checks now and liability later. This poses a challenge for policymakers when weighing the costs and benefits of a new policy: is reasonable to pay 90 cents today for a dollar tomorrow—and what if tomorrow’s dollar is a benefit other than money? When federal agencies undergo notice-and-comment rulemaking, they have to make these calculations. Immediate costs and benefits must be considered, while future factors are discounted to their present value to account for the intervening time. Selecting the discount rate can have material implications for any economic analysis, and especially for environmental rules which tend to involve front-loaded compliance costs and primarily future benefits.
After a few years off, we are delighted to bring back our Annual UK Environmental, Safety & Health Conference this June. The theme is Managing Developing ESH Risks in the UK and Internationally.
We are excited to have the following speakers join us for what will be an interesting discussion:
