A federal court says the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) exceeded its authority by issuing a 20-month delay to regulations intended to prevent disasters at chemical plants and refineries.
The delay "makes a mockery" of a requirement to set timely compliance deadlines because "it is calculated to enable non-compliance," the DC Circuit Court of Appeals said today. EPA also failed to explain why such a lengthy delay was needed, the court said, or why the initial compliance deadlines in the rule were no longer appropriate.
Even so, EPA's delay of the rule still remains in place because the court suspended the enforcement of its ruling. That could give EPA time to finalize a proposal that would rescind most of the requirements in the regulations. EPA said it was reviewing the decision.
The chemical safety rule, which was issued in 2016 under former president Barack Obama, would have required chemical manufacturers, refineries, gas processing facilities and other industrial plants to take steps to prevent the accidental release of hazardous chemicals.
The oil and chemical industries balked at the requirements and aggressively lobbied to prevent them from taking effect. The regulations were projected to cost industry $131mn/yr but produce net benefits from avoided deaths and explosions.
EPA suspended the rule soon after President Donald Trump took office and eventually pushed back compliance until February 2019. The agency said it needed 20 months to complete a complex process of reconsidering the rule and addressing industry's concerns.
But the court said there was nothing in the law that allows EPA to delay the standards simply because it wanted additional time. That statute sets a three-month limit on delays for reconsideration and "EPA cannot escape Congress's clear intent to specifically limit the agency's authority," the court said.
The stinging court rebuke is the latest in a string of losses the Trump administration has faced in court in its efforts to delay environmental regulations. A federal court yesterday threw out a plan to suspend a major water rule. US courts have previously blocked efforts to delay methane regulations, flaring restrictions and the enforcement of ozone standards.
But many of the victories environmentalists have achieved against regulatory delays have been short-lived.
Lawsuits can take more than a year to move through court, which has provided federal agencies months to lay the groundwork for repealing the regulation at issue. EPA, for example, could delay today's ruling for months by filing an appeal, and it expects it can finish its plan to relax the chemical safety rule by February.
