After initially requesting abeyance in Texas Chemistry Council, et al. v. EPA litigation over its 2024 final risk management rule regulating chrysotile asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) on July 7, 2025, the EPA withdrew that motion and “and requested that the court set an August 8, 2025, deadline for filing motions to govern further proceedings,” according to law firm Bergeson & Campbell P.C.
“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,” the Bergeson article says. “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.”
The final rule to prohibit ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos, the only known form of asbestos currently used in or imported to the United States, was promulgated on March 18, 2024.
“The ban on ongoing uses of asbestos is the first rule to be finalized under the 2016 amendments to the nation’s chemical safety law, [TSCA], which received near-unanimous support in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate,” an EPA news release explains.
The Texas Chemistry Council case argues that the EPA exceeded its authority under TSCA in creating this regulation and that the rule is arbitrary and capricious.
TSCA Section 6(a) requires the EPA to regulate chemicals found to present an unreasonable risk so that they “no longer present such risk.” To “the Extent practicable,” Section 6(c) requires the consideration of several factors, including:
- Health and environmental effects,
- Magnitude of exposure,
- Benefits of the chemical for its intended use,
- Reasonably ascertainable economic consequences, and
- The availability of alternatives.
See the EPA webpage for more information about Risk Management for Asbestos, Part 1: Chrysotile Asbestos.