During the first 100 days of President Trump’s Administration, a number of Presidential Executive Orders (EOs) and White House Directives were issued, including the ones pertaining to reducing the regulatory burdens on domestic manufacturers. The EOs were, in part, to support the President’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.” The January 24, 2017, White House memorandum to the Department of Commerce seeking stakeholders’ input on Streamlining Permitting and Reducing Burdens on Domestic Manufacturing; and EO 13777 requesting the public’s input on which EPA regulations should be repealed, replaced, or modified because of their inequitable burdens on manufacturers, have a direct impact on FPA members’ federal and state environmental regulatory obligations. 

In response to EO 13777, FPA submitted written comments to the U.S. EPA on May 15, 2017. The comments identified over a dozen regulatory candidates for “repeal, replacement, or modification.” The recommendations ranged from replacing the impenetrable current requirements applicable to small reciprocating internal combustion engines found on fire pumps, to removing the Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting requirements for “pure ozone” emitted from a process on a press.

FPA strongly emphasized eight other actions: 

• Removing pelletized and solid wax from the definition of “oil” in the Clean Water Act Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) planning requirements
• Repealing the TSCA Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) for isocyanate-containing polymers that are otherwise regulated by FDA in food packaging
• Repealing TSCA Regulation applicability to Nanomaterials under SNUR for existing substances; and modifying the Nanomaterial Reporting Rule to limit its application to manufacturers and importers, and repeal reporting requirements for processors
• Repealing the applicability of PM2.5 State Implementation Plan (SIP) (including PM2.5 New Source Review (NSR) applicability) to Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Ammonia, and reinstituting the PM2.5 Surrogacy Policy until Air Dispersion Modeling for Secondary Air Pollutants is available at a reasonable cost
• Repealing EPA’s Clean Air Act “SIP Call” requiring states to remove exemptions of emission limits during equipment Startup, Shutdown, and Malfunction (SSM) in SIPs, and restore affirmative defenses during SSM
• Replacing and/or modifying the applicability of Compliance Testing Method 25A to VOCs and Volatile Organic Hazardous Air Pollutants (applicable to oxidizers and required for MACT compliance testing under 40 CFR Part 63, Subparts KK (Publishing and Printing) and JJJJ (Paper and other Web Coatings)
• Replacing the NSR Exemption for “Routine Replacement, Repair, and Maintenance” with a Bright Line Test
• Repealing the 1995 “Once-in-
  Always-in” Policy that requires compliance with MACT standard, even after a facility has become non-major Hazardous Air Pollutants source

For More Information

Please contact Ram Singhal at rsinghal@flexpack.org or 410-694-0800 if you have questions, or would like more information about the comments submitted.