As reported in our June 28, 2025, blog item, on June 16, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) filed a motion with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit requesting that litigation over its 2024 final risk management rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) be held in abeyance for an additional six months. Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA, No. 24-60193. According to the filing, EPA intended to initiate a new notice-and-comment rulemaking to reconsider certain provisions of the final rule. On July 7, 2025, EPA filed a notice of withdrawal of its motion to hold the case in abeyance and requested that the court set an August 8, 2025, deadline for filing motions to govern further proceedings. In the notice, EPA states that in lieu of a reply to petitioner Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization's June 18, 2025, opposition to EPA's motion for abeyance, it is withdrawing its motion. EPA notes that since it filed its motion to hold the case in abeyance, it "has further reconsidered the challenged rule and no longer intends to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking to evaluate potential changes at this time." EPA submitted a declaration from Lynn Ann Dekleva, Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention (OCSPP), in support of its withdrawal of its motion to hold the case in abeyance. Dekleva states that EPA has further reconsidered the final rule, including the applicability of workplace protection requirements to the use of asbestos-containing sheet gaskets in non-titanium dioxide chemical production and the selection of risk management measures for the asbestos sheet gasket and chlor-alkali conditions of use (COU). According to Dekleva, "EPA plans to explore whether guidance could provide further clarity to stakeholders as they implement the Rule, particularly with respect to any workplace protection measures." As a result, EPA does not intend to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking to evaluate potential changes to the final rule at this time.
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