Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule for the DOE on “U.S. Department of Energy Interpretation of Foreign Entity of Concern”. The rule was submitted to OIRA on March 21st, 2024. This rulemaking was not listed in the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda.
This rulemaking will probably be published next week.
Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory
Affairs (OIRA) announced
that it had approved a final rule for the EPA on “Methylene Chloride (MC);
Regulation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)”. The final rule was
submitted to OIRA on January 24th, 2024. The notice of proposed
rulemaking was
published on May 3rd, 2023.
According to the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:
“On May 5, 2023, EPA proposed a rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to address the unreasonable risk of injury to human health from methylene chloride. TSCA requires that EPA address by rule any unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment identified in a TSCA risk evaluation and apply requirements to the extent necessary so that the chemical no longer presents unreasonable risk. Methylene chloride, also known as dichloromethane, is acutely lethal, a neurotoxicant, a likely human carcinogen, and presents cancer and non-cancer risks following chronic exposures as well as acute risks. Central nervous system depressant effects can result in loss of consciousness and respiratory depression, resulting in irreversible coma, hypoxia, and eventual death, including 85 documented fatalities from 1980 to 2018, a majority of which were occupational fatalities. Nevertheless, methylene chloride is still a widely used solvent in a variety of consumer and commercial applications including adhesives and sealants, automotive products, and paint and coating removers. To address the identified unreasonable risk, EPA proposed to: prohibit the manufacture, processing, and distribution in commerce of methylene chloride for consumer use; prohibit most industrial and commercial uses of methylene chloride; require a workplace chemical protection program (WCPP), which would include a requirement to meet inhalation exposure concentration limits and exposure monitoring for certain continued conditions of use of methylene chloride; require recordkeeping and downstream notification requirements for several conditions of use of methylene chloride; and provide certain time-limited exemptions from requirements for uses of methylene chloride that would otherwise significantly disrupt national security and critical infrastructure. The Agency’s development of this rule incorporated significant stakeholder outreach and public participation, including public webinars and over 40 external meetings as well as required Federalism, Tribal, and Environmental Justice consultations and a Small Businesses Advocacy Review Panel. EPA's risk evaluation, describing the conditions of use is in docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2019-0437, with the 2022 unreasonable risk determination and additional materials in docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2016-0742.”
The EPA maintains a methylene chloride risk management web site.
We could see the final rule published in the Federal
Register in the next couple of weeks. I do not expect to cover the final rule
in any depth, but I will announce its publication on the appropriate ‘Short
Takes’ post.
Yesterday, with both the House and Senate in session, there were 76 bills introduced. One of those bills will receive additional attention in this blog:
HR
8070 To authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2025 for military
activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for
defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel
strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes. Rogers,
Mike D. [Rep.-R-AL-3]
The race to produce rare earth elements. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “That technology extracts rare earth elements from coal ash, leaving behind a solution rich in those elements and a residual solid containing iron and other metals. Through sequential steps of heating and cooling, rare earths are transferred into an ionic liquid—a salt in liquid state—via a proton-exchange mechanism. Acid-based reduction techniques and salt-based leaching can reduce the amount of iron in the final solution, after which rare earths must be further separated to produce pure metals or oxides. Rivalia can sell primary outputs to companies that handle subsequent processing steps or to manufacturers using rare earths, and sell residual solids to concrete producers. Stoy says Rivalia’s efforts will produce materials that could be used for cleaner products and alternative energy sources. Furthermore, they could help reduce the carbon footprint of concrete production by repurposing the solid residue as a replacement for emission-heavy Portland cement—a major ingredient in concrete.”
Hydrogen trains could revolutionize how Americans get around. TechnologyReview.com article. Pull quote: “Things may be starting to shift in the US as well, albeit slowly. BNSF appears to have softened its stance against electrification on a corridor it owns in Southern California, where it has agreed to allow California High-Speed Rail to construct overhead wire on its right of way. Rizzo and her group are looking to make these projects easier by sponsoring state legislation exempting overhead wire from the California Environmental Quality Act. That would prevent situations like a 2015 environmental lawsuit from the affluent Bay Area suburb of Atherton, over tree removal and visual impact, that delayed Caltrain’s electrification project for nearly two years.”
Astronomers Discover Milky Way's 'Sleeping Giant' Black Hole Shockingly Close to Earth. ScientificAmerican.com article. 2,000 light years equals ‘shockingly close’? Pull quote: “Gaia-BH3 is located just 2,000 light years from Earth, making it the second-closest black hole to our planet ever discovered. The closest black hole to Earth is Gaia-BH1 (also discovered by Gaia), which is 1,560 light-years away. Gaia-BH1 has a mass around 9.6 times that of the sun, making it considerably smaller than this newly discovered black hole.”
Ice age climate analysis reduces worst-case warming expected from rising CO2. Newswise.com article. 5 C reduced to 4 C. Pull quote: ““This paper allows us to produce more confident predictions because it really brings down the upper end of future warming, and says that the most extreme scenario is less likely,” Armour said. “It doesn't really change the lower end, or the average estimate, which remain consistent with all the other lines of evidence.””
How Google’s Location History Program Could Upend Digital Surveillance Law. LawfareMedia.org article. Includes a long discussion about problems with the underlying assumptions. Pull quote: “These facts were apparently central to the lack of Fourth Amendment protection for cell phone location data. As Judge Wilkinson said, “If the default position is that if you were in unless you opted out, that would be one thing. But the default position is that you’re out unless you opted in.” People like Chatrie likely lack a constitutional right in their data, because “they can preserve their privacy with a simple step” by doing nothing and choosing not to opt in.”
Teens are using an unregulated form of THC. Here’s what we know. ScienceNews.com article. Pull quote: “Unclear labeling and imprecise dosage instructions can lead to dangerous amounts of THC in the body. And with the possible presence of contaminants from chemical synthesis, delta-8 products may contain more than meets the eye. “I really worry about these contaminants,” Kruger says. “I worry that they’re actually getting … something different. And I worry about the potency.””
Chinese Organized Crime’s Latest U.S. Target: Gift Cards.
ProPublica.org.
Pull quote: “Other alleged card-draining runners entered the U.S. legally and
told police they were hired via online postings. Donghui Liao was arrested at a
Florida Target after employees noticed him removing gift cards from a bag and
placing them on racks. Through a translator, he told police that his employer
hired him online and mailed gift cards to him, according to court documents. He
was paid 30 cents for each card he returned to the rack. Police said they found
$60,000 worth of tampered cards in his possession. Liao remains in custody and
his case was recently transferred to federal court. The DOJ did not respond to
requests for comment and Liao has pleaded innocent.”
Today, CISA’s NCCIC-ICS published a control systems security advisory for products from Unitronics. They also updated two advisories for products from Mitsubishi.
Unitronics Advisory - This advisory describes a storing passwords in a recoverable format vulnerability in the Unitronics Vision Standard PLCs.
Mitsubishi Update #1 - This update provides additional information on an advisory that was originally published on October 14th, 2021 [removed from paywall] and most recently updated on October 13th, 2022 (not the dates reported in Section 5 of the advisory).
Mitsubishi Update #2
- This update
provides additional information on an advisory that was originally published on
September 7th, 2021 and most recently updated on October 13th,
2022.
For more details about these advisories, including a
down-the-rabbit hole look at a missing Mitsubishi update that leads to more
holes in the NVD.NIST.gov database, see my article at CFSN Detailed Analysis - https://patrickcoyle.substack.com/p/1-advisory-and-2-updates-published-ef9
- subscription required.
Launch of a Reentry Vehicle as a Payload That Requires a Reentry Authorization To Return to Earth. Federal Register FAA notice. Summary: “This action provides notice that in general, the FAA will not authorize launch of a reentry vehicle as a payload that will require a reentry authorization to return to Earth unless the reentry vehicle operator has obtained the appropriate reentry authorization.”
Elon Musk hopes 'fate smiles' on latest Starship rocket test flight. TheNationalNews.com article. Pull quote: ““I don't want to tempt fate … but I think the odds of actually catching the booster with the tower – probably like 80 to 90 per cent this year,” Mr Musk said.”
Boeing's Starliner capsule heads to launch pad for May certification mission. FloridaToday.com article. Lots of pictures, not much text.
China’s 130-ton reusable rocket engine breaks records during tests. InterestingEngineering.com article. Pull quote: “The research team behind the recent engine tests claims the 130-ton reusable liquid oxygen kerosene engine is highly reliable and has strong expandability. To make it function efficiently as a reusable engine, they set out to master multiple ignitions as well as large-range thrust adjustment and other technologies.”
NASA chief warns of Chinese military presence in space. Phys.org.com article. Not much in the way of supporting information. Pull quote: "But you got to be realistic," he added. "China has really thrown a lot of money at it and they've got a lot of room in their budget to grow.”
Astronauts to patch up NASA's NICER telescope. Phys.org article. Pull quote: “"We didn't design NICER for mission servicing. It was installed robotically, and we operate it from the ground," said Keith Gendreau, NICER's principal investigator at Goddard. "The possibility of a repair has been an exciting challenge. We considered both spacewalk and robotic solutions, puzzling out how to install patches using what's already present on the telescope and in space station toolkits."”
Lunar rover racing. TheSpaceReview.com article. Fairly in-depth
article. Pull quote: “Both Lunar Dawn and Moon RACER look like one might expect
from a slightly futuristic rover design; the illustrations they released looked
like something you might expect to see on a sci-fi novel cover, if in some
cases oddly streamlined for travel on an airless world. Astrolab’s Flexible
Logistics and Exploration (FLEX) rover, though, is different: a boxy design
with astronauts standing at the back, it looks less like a lunar rover than a
lunar Zamboni.”
Yesterday, the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) announced that it had approved a final rule from the EPA on “Procedures for Chemical Risk Evaluation Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)”. This final rule was submitted to OIRA on March 5th, 2024. The notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) was published on October 30th, 2023.
According to the Fall 2023 Unified Agenda entry for this rulemaking:
“As required under section 6(b)(4)
of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), EPA published a final rule in 2017
that established a process for conducting risk evaluations to determine whether
a chemical substance presents an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the
environment, without consideration of costs or other non-risk factors,
including an unreasonable risk to a potentially exposed or susceptible
subpopulation, under the conditions of use. This process incorporates the
science requirements of the amended statute, including best available science
and weight of the scientific evidence. The final rule established the steps of
a risk evaluation process including: scope, hazard assessment, exposure
assessment, risk characterization, and risk determination. The Agency has
reconsidered the procedural framework rule for conducting such risk evaluations
and determined that certain aspects of that framework should be revised to
better align with applicable court decisions and the statutory text, to reflect
the Agency’s experience implementing the risk evaluation program following
enactment of the 2016 TSCA amendments, and to allow for consideration of future
scientific advances in the risk evaluation process without need to further
amend the Agency’s procedural rule.”
This rule could be published in the Federal Register in the
next couple of weeks. I do not expect to fully cover the provisions of the
rule, but I will not the publication of the final rule in the appropriate Short
Takes post.
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