EPA won’t move forward with a Biden-era proposal to review plastic-waste-derived feedstocks used to make fuel.
In a proposed rule published in the Federal Register on Wednesday, the agency withdrew the June 2023 proposal that would have required fuels derived from plastics be free from 18 listed chemical contaminants before they’re allowed to be used in transportation.
The Biden administration’s rule stemmed from concerns over what impurities existed in the feedstocks from chemical recycling technologies, primarily pyrolysis. Pyrolysis is a process that uses high temperatures to break down hard-to-recycle plastics to their chemical building blocks for future reuse, often as fuel.
An agency assessment on the fuel generated by Chevron’s chemical recycling plant in Pascagoula, Mississippi, found the emissions posed cancer risks for potentially 1 in 4 nearby residents, sparking public outrage and a lawsuit.
