The D.C. Circuit recently ruled that the EPA’s proposed 20-month stay of the effective date of the Obama administration’s Risk Management Plan (RMP) Rule was arbitrary and capricious, holding that the agency had failed to articulate an adequate basis for a delay and lacked statutory authority to use notice-and-comment rulemaking to delay past reconsideration timelines. The Obama administration’s RMP Rule would require facilities that use certain chemicals to comply with additional audit, reporting and notice requirements. The decision could mean that certain elements of the Obama administration’s rule would take effect later this fall, although the D.C. Circuit has not yet issued its mandate in the case, and EPA has 45 days to decide whether it will seek rehearing or rehearing…
