Following an overwhelmingly bipartisan 357-70 vote in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024 is now pending before the Senate where some Republican Senators indicated they would like changes. Any alterations to the tax bill would require another vote in the U.S. House and further delay the tax relief sought by manufacturers.
The One-Voice-endorsed bill will:
- Reinstate R&D expensing retroactive to January 1, 2022 and through 2025, eliminating the requirement to amortize and capitalize R&D activities
- Restore 100% Full Expensing (Bonus Depreciation) retroactive to January 1, 2023 (fell to 60% on January 1, 2024)
- Return to full EBITDA standard for 163(j) business interest loan deductions retroactive to January 1, 2023
- Increase Section 179 small business expensing limit from $1.16 million to $1.29 million
- Halt Employee Retention Tax Credit applications effective January 31, 2024
One Voice members sent hundreds of messages to their Representatives in the U.S. House and now we need you to activate again and press the Senate to not make changes to the bipartisan bill and pass the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024.
Now, your Senators need to hear from you about the negative consequences of not acting to reverse the changes made to these tax provisions. Click here to contact your Senators TODAY and call on them to support and immediately act on the Tax Relief for American Families and Workers Act of 2024.
EPA Confirms PTFE Covered Under TSCA Reporting
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released a spreadsheet identifying various per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) covered by the recently finalized Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) reporting rule in September 2023. The rule mandates that entities involved in manufacturing (including importing) PFAS or PFAS-containing articles between January 1, 2011, and December 31, 2022, submit a one-time electronic report detailing PFAS uses, production volumes, disposal, exposures, and hazards.
The regulation defines PFAS broadly, without an exhaustive list of specific chemicals. PFAS, according to EPA, includes any chemical substance or mixture containing a chemical substance with at least one of three specified sub-structures:
- R-(CF2)-CF(R′)R″, where both the CF2 and CF moieties are saturated carbons;
- R–CF2OCF2-R′, where R and R′ can either be F, O, or saturated carbons; and
- CF3C(CF3)R′R″, where R′ and R″ can either be F or saturated carbons.
The definition encompasses various fluoropolymers, such as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
In response to inquiries from potentially regulated entities, the EPA has published a spreadsheet featuring over 1,000 chemicals meeting the structural definition, emphasizing that it is not an exhaustive list. Notably, the spreadsheet includes “Ethene, 1,1,2,2-tetrafluoro-, homopolymer,” an alternative name for PTFE.
The reporting rule necessitates manufacturers to disclose activities “known to or reasonably ascertainable by” them, urging a comprehensive inquiry within their organization and supply chain for due diligence. The EPA encourages manufacturers and importers to document their efforts to acquire the information required for compliance.
Manufacturers subject to the rule must submit PFAS data to the EPA within 18 months, by May 8, 2025. Small manufacturers exclusively importing articles have an extended deadline until November 10, 2025, to submit their data.
The spreadsheet of covered PFAS under the TSCA reporting rule can be found here: https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2024-01/tsca-8a7-pfas_01192024.xlsx
Final Rule Regulating Methylene Chloride Under Review
The final rule regulating methylene chloride under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) has been submitted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to the White House for review. On January 24, 2024, the White House Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) received the regulation titled “Methylene Chloride (MC); Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).” The typical review process takes about 90 days, but the duration may vary depending on the specific actions involved. EPA has indicated that it expects to issue the final rule in March 2024.
The rule would prohibit the manufacture or import, processing, and distribution in commerce of methylene chloride for consumer use; and prohibit most industrial and commercial uses of methylene chloride, which is used as a degreaser in metal manufacturing operations. EPA first proposed the rule on May 3, 2023.
The proposed rule would set a 15-month deadline to eliminate most uses of methylene chloride while a small set of “critical” uses would be subject to a 10-year deadline. These uses include the manufacture of the chemical, its roles as a feedstock for climate-safe refrigerants and as a degreaser for civilian aircraft, and various applications at the Department of Defense (DOD), NASA, and Federal Aviation Administration. For the limited continued use, the proposed rule would require a workplace chemical protection program (WCPP) including inhalation exposure monitoring and limits, recordkeeping, and downstream notification requirements. Certain exemptions to the rule would be available for uses of methylene chloride that would “otherwise significantly disrupt national security and critical infrastructure.”
Expansion of EPA “Good Neighbor” Rule Proposed
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing an expansion of the Good Neighbor Plan (GNP) to encompass an additional five states. The existing “Federal ‘Good Neighbor Plan’ for the 2015 Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards,” which has been in effect since August 4, 2023, broadened interstate air pollution regulations to ensure states adhere to their “good neighbor” responsibilities under the Clean Air Act (CAA). The CAA mandates additional emission controls for states making a “significant contribution” to emissions affecting downwind states’ ability to meet the 2015 National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, set at 70 parts per billion (ppb).
The GNP currently encompasses 23 states, with 22 participating in the summertime ozone season NOx trading program for power plants. The regulation also set NOx emission rate limits for nine new industry sectors in 20 states.
These industries include reciprocating internal combustion engines in pipeline transportation of natural gas, kilns in cement and cement product manufacturing, reheat furnaces in iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing, furnaces in glass and glass product manufacturing, boilers in iron and steel mills and ferroalloy manufacturing, metal ore mining, basic chemical manufacturing, petroleum and coal products manufacturing, and pulp, paper, and paperboard mills.
The new emission limits for manufacturing industries apply in Arkansas, California, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia. The remaining states under which only power plants are covered include Alabama, Minnesota, and Wisconsin.
The recent supplemental proposal, unveiled on January 23, 2024, seeks to incorporate Arizona, Iowa, Kansas, New Mexico, and Tennessee, even though the final GNP rule is presently on hold due to legal challenges in Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.
Additionally, the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on February 21, 2024, regarding emergency applications by Ohio, Indiana, and West Virginia to halt the rule nationwide.
Court Remands EPA Ozone Standard
A federal appeals court has granted a motion by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to remand the ozone standards set during the Trump administration to allow time for a new statutory review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ground-level ozone (O3).
The EPA was in the process of conducting a reconsideration of the Trump administration’s 2020 decision to retain the limits of 70 parts per billion (ppb) averaged over eight hours, set in 2015. However, in August the EPA halted the reconsideration in favor of conducting a new statutory review. This decision was prompted by concerns raised by the Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (CASAC) regarding the EPA’s analysis of the scientific basis supporting the recommendation by agency staff to maintain the existing ozone national ambient air quality standards (NAAQS) without alteration.
The granting of EPA’s request for voluntary remand by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit allows “the Agency to focus the resources available to the Ozone NAAQS on this full and systematic review, rather than dividing those resources between defending the 2020 Ozone NAAQS Decision in litigation while also working to address the issues raised by the Advisory Committee in the reconsideration of that decision in the context of a new, full review,” said EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Office of Air and Radiation (OAR) Joe Goffman.
Environmental and public health groups have long pushed for tougher ozone NAAQS and in a report to EPA staff, CASAC proposed a tightening of both the “primary” health-based ozone standard and the “secondary” standard designed to protect the environment. In the report, released in June 2023, a majority of CASAC members advocated for a significantly stricter primary limit, suggesting a range between 55 and 60 parts per billion (ppb). Additionally, nearly all committee members endorsed a more stringent secondary limit, employing an ecologically based approach known as the W126 index. This method recommends a limit ranging from 7 to 9 parts per million-hours (ppm-hours) measured over an annual period spanning multiple growing seasons.
With the 2020 ozone NAAQS decision remanded, the EPA will continue with its fresh evaluation of the ozone NAAQS including a new integrated science assessment (ISA). This comprehensive, time-consuming process will push the issuance of a final rule well beyond the end of 2024.