Energy, Environment And Resources Update - Issue 5 | December 2015

Market Forces and States as Laboratories—Not Always Desired by Business

In the wake of the December 17, 2015, passage of a Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reform bill by the U.S. Senate, which followed the lead of the U.S. House of Representatives, one may ask: What is going on? The current Congress is supporting new federal environmental regulation?

The answer lies in two facts: (1) the existing statute was simply outdated and unworkable for industry, and (2) the existence of a dysfunctional federal regulatory program had spawned the equally disliked (principally by industry, but also by environmentalists) evolution of differing regulations in different states. Thus, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), after acknowledging the need for public confidence in federal regulation of chemical safety, noted: "This lack of confidence has created pressure on individual state legislatures to create their own chemicals management laws and on retailers to pull