House lawmakers are split — even within their parties — on this big question: Should Congress control who should be on the hook for cleaning up “forever chemicals”?
The Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Environment took up the question Thursday in its first hearing focused on PFAS liability shields, following years of Senate debates that offered few solutions.
The pressure for Congress to intervene on PFAS liability was raised in September when EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency would defend a Biden-era rule extending the government’s authority under the Superfund law to make polluters pay for cleanups at sites contaminated by PFOA or PFOS, the two most-studied compounds in the family of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
EPA has issued policy guidance indicating it doesn’t intend to go after “passive receivers” — entities like water utilities and waste haulers that don’t manufacture the chemicals but still deal with the consequences of contamination.
