The world’s largest business network and nation’s top lobbying spender is suing EPA over its rule designating two “forever chemicals” as hazardous under the Superfund law, which gives the agency the power to make polluters pay for site cleanup.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and two trade associations — the Associated General Contractors of America and the National Waste & Recycling Association — filed the petition Monday in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. It appears to be the first suit filed against the rule, which experts predict will draw a great deal of challengers.
The petition does not specify complaints. Chuck Chaitovitz, the Chamber’s vice president of environmental affairs, in a statement echoed calls on EPA to revisit the designation entirely and instead “pursue other, more effective approaches to clean up legacy PFOA and PFOS.”
“We support accelerating the cleanup of PFOA and PFOS sites, but those goals will take a back seat to decades of counterproductive litigation stemming from this new rule,” Chaitovitz said.