in effect
This is an EPA notification (not a new rule) that pushes back the start date of part of an existing regulation. It uses the agency’s authority under Section 705 of the Administrative Procedure Act, which lets an agency delay when a rule takes effect while that rule is being challenged in court. It directs that certain provisions of the December 17, 2024 TCE final rule stay paused for a while longer.
The underlying rule (published December 17, 2024) bans nearly all uses of the chemical trichloroethylene (TCE) under the Toxic Substances Control Act, but it allowed some uses to continue under workplace safety conditions through TSCA Section 6(g) exemptions. Those workplace conditions had already been postponed once, until June 20, 2025. This action extends that postponement by an additional 60 days, moving the new effective date to August 19, 2025. One named example is the condition on using TCE as a processing aid to make specialty microporous sheet material (used in battery separators). Nothing else about the ban changes — only the timing of when these specific exemption conditions must be met.
The delay primarily benefits companies that hold or rely on the TCE exemptions, including the industry petitioners named in the document — Microporous, LLC; the Alliance for a Strong U.S. Battery Sector; and PPG Industries — and battery-separator manufacturers in particular. For these businesses and their workers, the workplace protection requirements tied to the exempted uses do not have to be in place until August 19, 2025, while related litigation in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals continues and EPA reconsiders the rule.