The OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs
(OIRA) announced yesterday that it had approved the EPA’s final rule for the
critical use exceptions (CUE) for the continued use of methyl bromide under the
Montreal Protocol. Publication of the rule could be seen by the end of the
week.
There are a couple of interesting comments in the docket
for this rule (here,
here
and here;
PDF download links). What is missing from the docket this year is a copy of the
EPA’s letter to users and manufacturers of methyl bromide notifying them that
the EPA would take no enforcement action against users and manufacturers for
the use of methyl bromide for CUE this year while the EPA got this delayed rule
through the publication process.
Once again it is clear that DHS erred in 2007 when it
removed methyl bromide from the final version of Appendix a to 6 CFR 27 based
upon the EPA’s assurance that methyl bromide was being phased out of
use/production. While the use of methyl bromide has certainly decreased it
shows no sign of disappearing from the US market place.
Perhaps if manufacturers and distributors were subject to
CFATS program security costs, there might have been more of an incentive to
phase out this toxic inhalation hazard product.
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