| Biobased and Renewable Products Update |
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November 7, 2019 |
Federal
House Committee Will Hold Hearing On Future Science In EPA Rulemaking
On November 13, 2019, at 10:00 a.m. (EST), the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will hold a hearing on “Strengthening Transparency or Silencing Science? The Future of Science in EPA Rulemaking.” The Committee will hear from the following witnesses:
Panel 1
- Dr. Jennifer Orme-Zavaleta,
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for Science, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD); EPA
Science Advisor.
Panel 2
- Dr. Linda S. Birnbaum,
Scientist Emeritus, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS); Director of NIEHS, 2009-2019;
- Dr. Mary B. Rice, Assistant
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Pulmonary and Critical Care
Physician, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center;
- Dr. David Allison, Dean, School
of Public Health, Indiana University-Bloomington; Member, “Reproducibility
and Replicability in Science” Committee, The National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; and
- Dr. Todd Sherer, Chief
Executive Officer (CEO), The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s
Research.
EPA Announces New Opportunity For Public Comment Period On CBI Procedures
On October 30, 2019, EPA announced that in response to an April 2019 court decision on the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) Inventory Notification (Active-Inactive) Requirements Final Rule, EPA will publish a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking that includes two additional questions about “reverse engineering” that manufacturers and processors would be required to answer when making confidential business information (CBI) claims. According to EPA, these questions would help provide additional information on CBI claims for specific chemical identities and would ensure that chemical companies are fully supporting their CBI claims. EPA is also proposing a process for manufacturers and processors to use to amend and update certain previously submitted claims to include responses to these additional questions, as required to be addressed by federal circuit court decision. EPA notes that the supplemental notice is limited in scope and that “[i]t impacts only the universe of CBI claims made for specific chemical identities for chemicals reported as ‘active’ in response to the Active-Inactive Rule.” Publication of the supplemental notice in the Federal Register will begin a 30-day comment period.
Industry
Biofuels Industry Supporters Come Together In Letter To Trump
On November 4, 2019, 60 organizations unified in an effort to urge U.S. President Donald Trump to reconsider EPA’s proposed amendments to the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program. Signed by organizations such as the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), a Biobased and Renewable Products Advocacy Group (BRAG®) member, the letter to the President indicates flaws within the aforementioned proposal released on October 15, 2019. Arguing that the proposed amendments would not accurately account for small refiner exemptions (SRE), the letter authors state that “[t]he flawed proposal swaps out a critical component of the SRE remedy sought by farmers and the biofuels industry,” failing to achieve its mission to incentivize farm economies. Given the proposal to recover gallons of biofuel exemptions based on the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) recommendations, the proposed amendment would lead to a “bureaucratically uncertain path that recovers only one fraction of those gallons lost to SREs and could result in RFS backsliding in 2020.” Therefore, the letter concludes by urging President Trump to consider SRE accountability based on a rolling average of the actual volumes exempted by EPA during the three compliance years. Similar concerns and requests have been expressed by many industry stakeholders via docket comments as well as during last week’s public hearing held by EPA. The comment period ends on November 29, 2019, and doubts continue as industry expects EPA’s final rulemaking.
Other News
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IndustryWeek, “Renewable Plastics Are a Huge Untapped Opportunity” |
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nature, “A Crop That Feeds Billions Freed from Blight by CRISPR” |
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LABIOTECH.eu, “This Biotech Turns Seafood Waste into Packaging Using
Microbes” |
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Manila Bulletin, “DOH Highlights Role of Biotechnology in Saving More
Lives” |
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Industry Global News 24, “New Bio-Based Additives Launched to Reduce Fossil Fuel
Resource Usages” |
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