In a March 16 Federal Register (FR) notice, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt established a three-month stay in the effective date for recently enacted provisions addressing Risk Management Programs under the Clean Air Act. As noted in the FR notice, the administrative stay is in response to a petition from the RMP Coalition, a group of industry stakeholders. The petitioners claim that, as published, the final rule “was procedurally deficient so as to deprive commenters of effective notice and opportunity to comment; that circumstances changed–and undermined the factual predicate for the rule–when the comment period was nearly over such that it was impracticable to comment on how those circumstances impacted EPA's proposed provisions; and that EPA introduced new provisions or rationales in the Final Rule for which commenters had no notice and which were not a logical outgrowth from what was proposed.”
Several of the rationales cited in the petition mirror concerns that AMWA expressed in its comments on the RMP proposal. AMWA’s comments questioned whether the regulatory changes, as applicable to the water sector, where justified or even counterproductive given the water sector’s extremely low baseline accident rate – a testament to the success of the program as it currently exists.
The FR notice sets the new effective date of the rule as June 19, 2017. However, given the focus of the new administration and EPA leadership on reducing regulatory burdens, further delays or an outright withdrawal of the rulemaking are distinct possibilities.