A federal appeals court has stricken a sentence alleging improper EPA conduct during notice-and-comment rulemaking from the court’s May decision about a toxic flame retardant.
The deletion removes language saying the Environmental Protection Agency’s formal response to comments on a Biden-era rule gave an “impermissible post hoc rationalization” to explain that it isn’t using its statutory authority to regulate biosolids.
The now-deleted sentence also said the EPA’s disallowed rationalization explained that regulating decabromodiphenyl ether (decaBDE) in biosolids and sewage sludge would require wastewater treatment plants to test for the chemical and install treatment technologies to remove it.
The EPA had …