Lawmakers Ask EPA To Delay Chemical Reports

Two powerful Republicans in the House of Representatives are asking EPA to delay chemical makers’ reporting of production and other data. Under a regulation the agency issued last summer, companies are to report 2011 chemical manufacturing data as well as information about the industrial, commercial, and consumer processing and use of their products starting next month. The agency periodically requires submission of this information under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Now, Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy & Commerce Committee, and Rep. John M. Shimkus (R-Ill.), who chairs the panel’s Environment & the Economy Subcommittee, want EPA to postpone the period for companies to report this data. The rule requires the reporting between Feb. 1 and June 1. Upton and Shimkus want this pushed back to June 1 through Sept. 30. “The regulated community has been having trouble understanding how to comply with this rule,” the lawmakers say in a Jan. 13 letter to the agency. EPA has given no indication that it plans to change the reporting period.