As President Trump begins his second term, companies should prepare for significant shifts in environmental health and safety (EHS) regulations and enforcement. This alert outlines key anticipated changes, including leadership transitions, potential staffing impacts, using executive orders to change agency priorities, and regulatory rollbacks.
Department of Labor (DOL): The DOL is
On July 2, 2024, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released the official text of its Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings proposed standard. OSHA has been developing this standard since 2021, which will likely be finalized later this year.
The standard includes general mandates for all covered employers
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has recently submitted to the White House Office of Management and Budget (“OMB”) a final rule to update its Hazard Communication Standard (“HazCom”), which regulates the classification and labeling of hazardous chemicals in the workplace. The rule aims to align the HazCom with the latest version of the
On September 30, 2023, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed SB-553 into law. SB-553 is the nation’s first workplace violence prevention law. The law adds a new section 6401.9 to the California Labor Code, which will be implemented by Cal/OSHA. The new law requires that employers an effective plan aimed at preventing workplace violence in place
As economies pivot away from reliance on petroleum, the use of hydrogen is increasingly considered as a key component in a portfolio of alternative fuels and developing technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This is the first of a multi-part blog series on federal and state legislation being considered to stimulate “energy transition.” This blog
In a highly anticipated decision, the U.S. Supreme Court (Court) rejected U.S. EPA’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan in West Virginia v. EPA on June 30, 2022. Relying upon the “major questions doctrine,” the Court found that Congress had not intended to authorize EPA to regulate emissions using “generation shifting” (i.e., requirements that power production be
The UK plan for shipments of waste (the Plan) has been amended, with the key update being to emphasise that interim disposal operations should be carried out in the UK wherever possible.
Earlier this year Defra consulted on various amendments to the Plan for shipments of waste and those amendments have now been adopted
Last month, the Environmental Audit Committee (‘EAC’) launched an inquiry into a potential future carbon border adjustment mechanism (‘CBAM’) for the UK. The objective of introducing a CBAM would primarily be to address the risk of carbon leakage in the UK industrial sectors caught by the nascent UK Emissions Trading Scheme (‘UK ETS’), i.e. switching
On 23 September, the European Commission took a step towards consumers’ convenience and minimising the environmental footprint associated with the production and disposal of chargers. A proposal to amend the Radio Equipment Directive 2014/54/EU (RED) aims to make a single charger for mobile devices mandatory. Although the number of mobile phone chargers had
As the transition in presidential administration draws closer and COVID-19 cases continue to increase in certain parts of the country, it appears increasingly likely that the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) will undertake a rulemaking relating to COVID-19. Additionally, state plan OSHA agencies continue to revise and issue guidance relating to their own rules,