ENV-16-97 Increasing EPA Enforcement Under the CAA GDC and RMP

Description:

The energy and chemical manufacturing industries continue to experience high profile accidents that bring with them intense public scrutiny and the potential for significant reputational harm. In the United States, multiple federal and state statutes are implicated by a major accident and establish jurisdiction for subsequent investigations and enforcement by government authorities. Workplace incidents historically were the purview of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”). An increasingly assertive U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), however, has begun to eclipse the role of OSHA in the prevention of and response to process safety incidents. EPA’s new prominence is evident in its enforcement under the Clean Air Act (“CAA”) General Duty Clause (“GDC”) and the Risk Management Program (“RMP”), and also in on-going efforts at the federal level to reform chemical accident prevention regulations.