The Trump administration is setting the stage to scrap high-profile EPA regulations issued last year to slash cancer-causing emissions from medical equipment sterilization plants.
Now, the agency has determined that “it wishes to revisit and reconsider” those regulations “by initiating notice-and-comment rulemaking as soon as possible,” its attorney told the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in a motion last week.
EPA plans to take final action by next March, principal deputy air chief Abigale Tardif said in an accompanying letter to the Ethylene Oxide Sterilization Association, an industry trade group. In the meantime, the agency is asking the court for a voluntary remand of the 2024 regulations released during former President Joe Biden’s tenure.
The D.C. Circuit had scheduled oral arguments for April 15 in rival lawsuits brought by the association and a coalition of environmental and community advocacy groups.
