Overview
On February 28, 2024, Chemical Watch quoted Michael Boucher in an article entitled "TSCA Review of Vinyl Chloride Would Put Spotlight on Transportation Accidents." The article discusses environmental advocates’ urging the US EPA to include accidental spills in a future TSCA risk evaluation of vinyl chloride, sparking a debate on federal chemicals law and transportation safety regulations. Key stakeholders are urging US EPA to designate vinyl chloride as a high priority for risk evaluation under TSCA, but uncertainties remain about how US EPA will factor accidents into its evaluation, raising questions about regulatory implications.
Partner Michael Boucher, who advises industry on TSCA matters, said "every kind of sensible policy consideration argues in favor of addressing rail safety and other transportation of dangerous goods problems by means of the federal laws and regulations enforced by DOT and not solely or primarily by means of TSCA." TSCA section 9 directs US EPA to consider whether risks that it identifies could be appropriately managed by other federal laws. Boucher said, "The US DOT is the competent federal agency for regulating the transportation of hazardous materials by rail, road, air, pipeline or any other mode of transportation, and EPA is not similarly competent."
