The Mine Safety and Health Administration proposed to amend its existing regulations to better protect mine workers against occupational exposure to respirable crystalline silica, a carcinogenic hazard, and to improve respiratory protection for all airborne hazards.
The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration proposed amendments to its hazardous materials regulations to require all railroads to generate in electronic form, maintain, and provide to first responders, emergency response officials, and law enforcement personnel, certain information regarding hazardous materials in rail transportation to enhance emergency response and investigative efforts.
EPA seeks comment on the draft Cumulative Risk Assessment (CRA) Guidelines for Planning and Problem Formulation, which describe steps for the planning and problem formulation of CRAs and offer guidelines for when they could be appropriate.
The Federal Highway Administration seeks public input on the implementation of §60505, Environmental Review Implementation Funds, of the Inflation Reduction Act.
EPA provided an explanation of its decisions to deny two petitions submitted under the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act of 2020, the first requesting that the Agency provide an exemption for the use of certain regulated substances in pain relief sprays and the second requesting that the Agency subject gas canisters of certain regulated substances to import restrictions established under the HFC Allocation Framework Rule.
HUD proposed to revise regulations governing floodplain management and the protection of wetlands to implement the federal Flood Risk Management Standard, in accordance with Executive Order No. 16390, Establishing a Federal Flood Risk Management Standard and a Process for Further Soliciting and Considering Stakeholder Input, to improve the resilience of Department-assisted or financed projects to the effects of climate change and natural disasters, and provide for greater flexibility in the use of HUD assistance in floodways under certain circumstances.
In 2015, the United Nations Member States, including the United States, unanimously approved 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be achieved by 2030. In a forthcoming book, leading legal scholars examine each of the SDGs and recommend a suite of government, private-sector, and civil society actions to help the United States achieve these goals. This Article is adapted from Chapter 12 of that book, Governing for Sustainability (John C. Dernbach & Scott E. Schang eds., ELI Press, forthcoming 2023).
Climate change has captured the attention of governments, regulators, international bodies, and the private sector. But climate change is arguably a single facet of a larger concern: the “rapid decline” in the integrity of nature. Climate and other natural systems are interconnected, and recent literature has focused increasingly on this “interdependence of climate, ecosystems, and biodiversity,” spurring a wide variety of organizations to reflect on the broader role nature plays in environmental sustainability.
The Office of Management and Budget, on behalf of the Interagency Policy Working Group on Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions, announced the availability of a finalized strategic plan on statistics for environmental-economic decisions.
EPA proposed to issue regulations restricting the use of hydrofluorocarbons in specific sectors or subsectors in which they are used, establishing a process for submitting technology transitions petitions, establishing recordkeeping and reporting requirements, and addressing certain other elements related to the effective implementation of the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act; the Agency also seeks advance information on certain topics that may be helpful to developing a future proposed rule, including on restrictions on the use of hydrofluorocarbons for certain other sectors and subsectors and on a third-party auditing program to verify substances used in products.